Sri Lankan Ruling Party's Electoral Victory Boosts Peace

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 22, 2002

Sri Lankan Ruling Party's Electoral Victory Boosts Peace

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Sri Lanka's ruling United National Party (UNP) of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe won a landslide victory in Wednesday's local government election, which is widely seen as a boost to the Norwegian-backed peace process in the country plagued by nearly two decades of bloody ethnic war.

The UNP won 217 of the 222 local government bodies while the main opposition People's Alliance (PA) of President Chandrika Kumaratunga won four and the leftist JVP or the People's Liberation Front secured one.

The government clinched nearly 58 percent of the total votes, the PA got 32 percent and the JVP six percent. The PA suffered a humiliating defeat as Kumaratunga even lost her home constituency.

The voter turnout is 60 percent which is comparatively low in the country's history of election. The election-related violence is also less than the previous elections with only 700 incidents and several deaths reported, although the PA and JVP have complained about a large scale election malpractice.

Police said that no curfew has been imposed after voting for the first time in 32 years in the country's history of election which is usually marred by violence.

Voters are also less enthusiastic this time as the elections were overshadowed by the momentous moves by the government to push for the early talks with separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels who initiated a unilateral ceasefire on the Christmas eve last year, soon after the UNP came to power after the December 5 parliamentary elections.

Sri Lanka's local government bodies total 311, among which elections for 20 bodies will be held in April. The elections for the war-torn north and east has been postponed till September 25 due to the lack of polling booths, reports said.

The signing of an indefinite ceasefire with the LTTE rebels last month has caused controversy among political parties, and the main opposition PA and leftist JVP opposed the truce agreement.

President Kumaratunga herself expressed concern that the agreement would undermine the country's sovereignty but she said she supported the Norwegian-brokered peace.

Under such political circumstances, high-ranking government officials said that the local elections will become a de facto referendum on the government's peace deal with Tamil rebels.

The Victory of the UNP in the election is a clear evidence that people's wish for peace prevails on the entire island country.

Currently the general atmosphere in the country is very favorable for the long-waited peace talks between the government and the LTTE rebels.

Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando told reporters on Thursday that the UNP victory will quell the objection of the peace process by the PA and JVP.

He said that so far there is no single violation of the ceasefire and the international monitors in the country have no work to do.

He said that substantive talks are expected to be held in the middle of the year but no venue has been finalized for the talks.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe also said that his resounding victory in the local government elections is an endorsement of his peace initiative to achieve peace through a political solution to the country's long-standing ethnic conflict.

Despite the current favorable atmosphere in the country, observers here noted that past experience has shown that the talks between the government and the Tamil rebels will not be an easy job and the road ahead toward peace in the country is still rocky.

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