Fearing more war but hoping for peace, Sri Lankans voted in strong numbers and under heavy security on Friday in snap elections expected to result in a divided legislature with no clear winner.
A hung Parliament could complicate efforts to build stability in Sri Lanka, where a fragile cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels has held for two years even though talks have stalled.
The chances of negotiating an end to two decades of civil war have been complicated by a split in rebel ranks as well as a bitter feud between the prime minister and the president.
Neither of their parties is expected to take a majority of seats in Parliament.
"I voted green for peace," said Chandra Kanapathipillai, casting her vote early Friday in Colombo, the capital. Green is the color of the party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the architect of Sri Lanka's current peace bid with the Tigers.
Kanapathipillai said she's worried about the possibility of war breaking out again and was debating whether she and her husband should leave the country.
By early afternoon, no major trouble had been reported.
"Polling so far has been very peaceful," said Jayanatha Wickramarathe, a top police official, adding there had been a handful of incidents of voter intimidation.
Turnout was good, he said, with more than half the country's 12.8 million registered voters casting ballots by midday.
"People seem very keen to exercise their franchise," he said.
Soldiers were out in force Friday for the elections, called more than three years ahead of schedule by the prime minister's bitter rival, President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
The two have waged a public power struggle over the direction of the peace talks, with the president -- who believes the prime minister has conceded too much to the rebels -- seizing control of three powerful ministries late last year and then calling early elections.
The Tigers began fighting since 1983 to carve out a separate homeland for minority ethnic Tamils who have long faced discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.
The Tigers now control vast swaths of northern and eastern Sri Lanka, where they have set up what is, essentially, their own state. Wickremesinghe signed a cease-fire with the Tigers two years ago which stopped the fighting that had killed nearly 65,000 people.
While the rivalry between the president and the prime minister dominates politics, opinion polls indicated that neither of their parties was likely to win a majority in the 225-seat Parliament. That would force them to turn to smaller parties -- ranging from one tied to the Tamil Tiger rebels to one led by Buddhist monks -- to forge a coalition or get legislation passed.
In the last parliament, Wickremesinghe's key ally was a Muslim party.
This time around, it could the Tamil National Alliance -- the Tigers' proxy party. That could give unprecedented political power to the Tigers, a secretive, almost cult-like group known for its brutality.
The party was dealt a blow, however, with the defection in March of a powerful Tiger leader, who took with him thousands of rebel fighters -- and a handful of Alliance candidates.
In eastern Sri Lanka, pre-poll violence left at least two people dead, including a candidate tied to the breakaway Tiger leader.
An uneasy tension prevailed in the area's main town, Batticaloa. Heavily armed soldiers were stationed every 100m in the Tamil-majority town.
In the Tamil heartland of northern Sri Lanka, about 20,000 Tamil voters from remote rebel-held regions camped overnight to cast their ballots at booths set up in areas between territory controlled by the rebels and the government, said TamilNet, a Web site that reports on Tamil affairs.
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