Sri Lankans trickled to the polls yesterday in the turbulent eastern city of Batticaloa to vote in the first municipal elections since government forces took control of the east last year from ethnic Tamil rebels.
Though thousands of police and soldiers patrolled the streets, many residents only warily came to polling stations in the city, which has been plagued by chaos and violence blamed on armed militia groups vying for power in the wake of the rebel defeat.
A high turnout was crucial to the government, which held the polls despite boycotts by some political parties and protests from human rights groups that said the level of violence and intimidation made it impossible to hold a fair vote.
Hoping to prevent violence, the government flooded the area with police. Soldiers armed with assault rifles stood guard every few meters, checking vehicles on the near empty road leading into town, while other troops patrolled in armored personnel carriers.
Few people turned out to vote when polling started at 7am.
Turnout improved by mid morning, and the elections appeared to be free of violent incidents.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa billed the vote as a crucial step toward democracy for the region after the military defeated the Tamil Tigers last July after 13 years of rebel rule.
Violence, much of it blamed on armed groups, has plagued the area since then. Many of the militias are running in the election.
One mayoral candidate, Edwin Krishnanandaraja, known better by his rebel nom de guerre Pradeep Master, said the militia had just entered the "democratic stream" and hoped to disarm "gradually."
He dismissed allegations that his rebel group forcibly recruited children, extorted money from businessmen and was behind rampant violence and killings. The group has also been accused of forcing community leaders to run on its ticket.
Opposition parties and rights groups and said the polls were irredeemably tainted by violence.
Meanwhile, a powerful bomb ripped through a commercial area of Sri Lanka's capital on Monday, killing one man and wounding six others, police said.
The improvised explosive device was hidden in a flower bed on the central median of the Colombo-Galle highway, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
"One person was killed and six others were wounded and taken to hospital," a police officer said, adding that investigations showed the man who was blown to pieces had tried to touch the device.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Four days after last scanning in for work, a 60-year-old office worker in Arizona was found dead in a cubicle at her workplace, having never left the building during that time, authorities said. Denise Prudhomme, who worked at a Wells Fargo corporate office, was found dead in a third-floor cubicle on Aug. 20, Tempe police said. She had last scanned into the building on Aug. 16 at 7am, police said. There was no indication she scanned out of the building after that. Prudhomme worked in an underpopulated area of the building. Her cause of death had not been determined, but police said the preliminary
‘DISCONNECTED’: Politics is one factor driving news avoidance, a professor said, adding that people who do not trust the government are more likely to tune it out Hannah Wong cried when the Hong Kong government effectively forced the territory’s Apple Daily and Stand News out of business three years ago. Among the last news firms in the territory willing to criticize the government openly, many saw their end as a sign that the old Hong Kong was gone for good. Today, the 35-year-old makeup artist says she has gone from reading the news every day to reducing her intake drastically to protect herself from despair. Four years into a crackdown on dissent that has swept up democracy-leaning journalists, rights advocates and politicians in the territory, a lot of people
RSS