Lanks's Tamil dominated northern region to hold historic polls

Voters in Sri Lanka's Tamil majority Northern Province will exercise their franchise tomorrow for the first time in 25 years to elect a council to govern the former war zone, four years after the military defeated LTTE.
On the eve of the historic polls, the home of a candidate belonging the country's main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA), was attacked in Jaffna, but she escaped unhurt.
Ananthi Sasheetharan's home at Ariyalai was attacked by a group of unidentified armed persons at midnight. Nine persons injured in the attack are being treated at Jaffna hospital.
A lawyer said he believed the attackers were from the army, which refuted the allegations.

The army still maintains a heavy presence in the region.
The Tamil-majority Northern Province is the only province which has never had its own council but the run-up to this vote has seen numerous allegations of army intimidation - all denied by the authorities.

However, polls in Northern Province are of significance as they are being held for the first time since Sir Lanka's three decade long bloody ethnic war ended four years ago in 2009.
Tamil Tiger rebels fought for a separate homeland for the ethnic community in Sri Lanka.
Besides north, tomorrow will see council elections in in central and northwestern provinces.

Some 4.3 million people from the island's over 14 million registered voters are eligible to vote in the three provinces. A total of 40,000 state officials, including 24,000 police and security personnel, have been deployed for the polls.
Police have also decided to hand over the security of the counting centres to the elite Special Task Force (STF). Around 1,200 STF personnel will be deployed at the 24 counting centres.
The focus, however, is on Jaffna where a total of 714,000 voters will exercise their franchise to choose the semi- autonomous council.
The TNA is expected to win in the region. Its main rival is the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.