Ruling party wins Sri Lanka polls

Sri Lanka's ruling party won control of the country's tense Eastern Province on Sunday after an election that monitors said was marred by voter intimidation and fraud.

The election commission said the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance coalition won 52 percent of Saturday's vote, giving it 18 seats - plus two bonus seats given to the winner - on the province's 37-member council.

The opposition United National Party won 42 percent of the vote and captured 15 seats, while two smaller parties won one seat each, the commission said.

The opposition condemned the results of the election, saying they were the outcome of an irreparably flawed vote.

"This is a totally distorted mandate that they got. This is obtained by fraud," said Rauff Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, which ran in coalition with the UNP.

Opposition leaders planned to meet in Colombo to decide whether to sue to overturn the election, he said.

The government said the provincial election would mark a fresh start for the region less than a year after the military seized control of the area from the Tamil Tiger rebels, who ruled the area for 13 years.

It was also intended to give a degree of self-rule to the region - divided among Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils - and to counter rebel demands for an independent state, even as a civil war with the separatists rages on in the north.

The ruling party ran in a coalition with a breakaway rebel faction known as the TMVP, which has been accused of campaigning with weapons and threatening voters and opposition candidates.

About 60 percent of the province's nearly 1 million registered voters cast ballots, according to the election commission, a turnout that opposition officials and election monitors said was markedly low for a vote of such importance.

Independent monitors said the election went smoothly in some areas, but quickly unraveled in others.

"There are many, many violations taking place," said Kingsley Rodrigo, head of the independent People's Action for Free and Fair Elections. He said the TMVP threatened and intimidated voters.

Other monitors reported that opposition parliamentarians were attacked by mobs, that children were seen casting ballots and that gangs of people were observed shuttling between polling stations to vote numerous times in the Valaichchenai region.

"At almost every station, stuffing is taking place," said Sunanda Deshapriya, an official with the independent Center for Monitoring Election Violence. The group called for a revote, at least in the worst-affected areas.

There were also several incidents of violence.

In Kathankudi, four people from a family of opposition supporters were badly burned when a bottle of acid was thrown into their house, said Jamaldeen Farida, one of the injured.

A supporter of the ruling party coalition, S. Tarek, was attacked by opposition supporters outside a polling station in the town of Eravur, his brother-in-law Mustafa Nazir said. Hospital workers said Tarek suffered a broken skull.

Education Minister Susil Premjayantha, who has been campaigning in the province, said he had not heard about the violence or fraud, but that he doubted the reports and accused the monitors of bias.

"Compared to other elections in other parts of the country, I think this election is free and fair," he said.

Meanwhile, new fighting near the Tamil Tiger rebels' stronghold in northern Sri Lanka left 18 insurgents dead, the military said Sunday.

A military official said the clashes occurred Saturday in the northern Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar and Welioya regions.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of government rules, said a few soldiers were wounded in the battles.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not immediately available for comment. It was not possible to obtain independent confirmation of the military's claims because reporters are not allowed in the war zone.