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| Sri Lanka |
| Tamil areas to hold local polls |
| 2009-05-26 |
| The Sri Lanka government has announced local elections will be held in two key areas in the mainly Tamil north within the next three months. Municipal polls will be held in Jaffna and Vavuniya for the first time in a decade, a government spokesman said. The move follows the defeat of the Tamil Tigers rebels last week. No date has been set for elections at provincial level in the north, which last took place in 1988. Jaffna and, especially, Vavuniya are home to large numbers of Tamil refugees displaced by the war, but the camps where they live are not within the voting areas, said Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, minister of local government. Although the last presidential and parliamentary elections, four and five years ago, did include the north, turnout was low as the Tamil Tigers called a boycott, the BBC's Charles Haviland says. The government has promised to devolve as many powers as possible to the provinces as part of what it says is a programme to meet more of the aspirations of the Tamil minority. |
| Posted by:Steve White |