AFP/Colombo

The opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won 30 out of 38 seats in the first elections for a provincial council in the former war zone, amid international pressure for the majority Sinhalese to share power with Tamils four years after the end of the bloody
separatist conflict.

TNA leader C V Wigneswaran said the results were an overwhelming vote for self-rule for Tamils. He repeated his demand for the military to withdraw from the Tamil-dominated north, saying there was no reason for its presence since the end of the war in 2009.

“That (army presence) is the primary problem the Tamils of the northern province are having today,” Wigneswaran told foreign media in the region’s capital Jaffna shortly after results were announced.

“You have to get rid of the army. They must be put in barracks somewhere else,” said Wigneswaran, who is set to become the region’s chief
minister.

Saturday’s vote in the former rebel stronghold has been promoted by the UN Human Rights Council as a step towards ethnic reconciliation following the 26-year war that claimed over 100,000 lives.

The national government of President Mahinda Rajapakse has been under pressure to share power with Tamils who are a minority nationally but a majority in the north.

The TNA swept all five districts in the election for the semi-autonomous Northern Provincial Council, results from the department of elections showed. The poll for the council was held amid claims the military tried to intimidate and harass voters and a Tamil candidate.

Rajapakse’s United People’s Freedom Alliance won just seven seats in a humiliating defeat for the president, who has won almost every major election since he led the campaign that crushed Tamil Tigers in 2009.

A Muslim party won one seat on the council.

In the district of Jaffna, 400km (250 miles) north of Colombo and home to over a million Tamils, the TNA secured more than 84% of the vote, exceeding its projections of 66%.

There were no public signs of celebrations yesterday in Jaffna where the military maintains a large presence.

Wigneswaran said he was open to talks with the president on power-sharing arrangements in the north, and was seeking devolution in a united Sri Lanka, as set out in a statute in 1987, rather than separation.

“There is a fear of separation, but all we are asking for is a federal state which exists within the boundaries of Sri Lanka,” Wigneswaran said. “We are for an undivided Sri Lanka and self-rule under a federal system.”

Provincial councils were established in 1987 as part of a plan to ease ethnic unrest. But elections had never been held for the northern council, which until now had been under direct
presidential control.

Rajapakse has accused the TNA—a coalition of several Tamil groups, including ex-militants—of raising expectations of a separate state, a move opposed by the Sinhalese majority.

The government has said it will not give provincial councils power over land and police as originally envisaged in the 1987 statute.

Any decisions that the council takes — for example, raising taxes, building new infrastructure or changes to local services — can also be vetoed by the regional governor who is an
appointee of the president.

Rajapakse’s defeat comes despite the government pouring millions of dollars into rebuilding infrastructure damaged by decades of fighting. Many residents have complained that troops were still occupying their land four years after the end of the war.

Rajapakse’s government has faced international calls to probe what the UN calls “credible allegations” that up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the fighting. Sri Lanka says its troops did not kill a
single civilian.

The election comes ahead of a Commonwealth heads of government summit due to take place in Colombo in mid-November which Canada has boycotted over human rights
concerns.

There was no immediate reaction from Rajapakse’s party on the results, but the government information department on Saturday said the 68% turnout in the north was a good sign of “participatory democracy”.

Western diplomats who were in Jaffna monitoring the vote said the TNA had done better than they had expected.

“This is a clear message on what the Tamils want,” one diplomat said, asking not to be named. “It will be difficult to
ignore it.”