From the Associated Press:
Sri Lankan Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told AP while campaigning in Kilinochchi: This election victory "is of value to the government. ..It will enable us to tell the world that we have won the confidence of the Tamil people after winning the war."
The Tamil National Alliance complained to the elections commissioner that a group [it] believes was military, in uniforms and carrying rifles, forcibly collected polling cards used to identify eligible voters in many parts of Kilinochchi on Friday night.
From TamilNet:
Causing panic and instilling maximum fear among the voters in Vanni, the occupying Sri Lanka Army let loose its soldiers in civil cloths on house-to-house attack in many of the villages in Kilinochchi district in the early hours of Saturday, curbing the voters inside their houses.
The armed men in civil, speaking broken Tamil, came in vehicles as early as 3:00 am and attacked the civilians instructing them to stay indoors on the election day.
Widespread attacks were reported in the villages of Vaddakkachchi, Maayavanoor, Champukku'lam, Koa'naavil, Paarathipuram and Malayalapuram of Ki'linochchi district. Voters and candidates have been subjected to indiscriminate attacks causing injuries.
Unformed soldiers were seen close to various election booths in Kilinochchi, effectively blocking the voters from entering the booths until noon.
The SLA did not allow the TNA candidates to be present at the booths.
Some voters were given 1,000 to 1,500 rupees at the gates of the booths and turned away by the troops in Kilinochchi. Their ballot papers were torn apart by the soldiers.
23,913 voters are registered in Ki'linochchi. Recently, the SL government dropped more than 300,000 voters names from the list saying most of them had fled the country.
