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Lankan polls: UNP set to emerge as single largest party

The opposition United National Party (UNP) is all set to emerge the largest party in Sri Lanka's 12th parliament, having received 45.56 per cent of the nearly 1.41 million votes counted so far, officials said on Thursday morning.

Led by former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the UNP has established comfortable leads in many of its strongholds while breathing down the neck of the ruling People's Alliance even in traditional PA bastions.

The UNP has won both districts - Badulla in central Sri Lanka and Polonnaruwa in the east - for which full results are available, but it remains to be seen if the party can reach the elusive figure of 113 seats required for a majority in the 225-member legislature.

The ruling People's Alliance has been left behind with 38.46 per cent of the votes, and has only slender leads in a few districts, but will get a sizeable number of seats under the system of proportional representation.

More than six million votes are yet to be counted.

The left-wing Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) has re-established itself as an emerging third force, accounting for 8.40 per cent of the votes counted so far. In the event of an hung parliament, the JVP's seats will prove crucial and is expected to go along with the PA rather than the UNP, its arch enemy.

The four-party Tamil Nationalist Alliance (TNA) is leading in three Tamil majority electoral districts of Vanni, Batticaloa and Jaffna, leaving behind the pro-government Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).

Significantly, about 80,00 Tamils in the northern areas were prevented from exercising their franchise.

The TNA is contesting in the name of the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) on a political plank that reflects the LTTE's current demands.

About 70 per cent of Sri Lanka's 12 million eligible voters cast their ballots in a bitterly fought election marred by violence and charges of malpractices and intimidation of voters.

The police elections secretariat recording as many as 14 killings, including the mass murder of seven supporters of a Muslim party in the volatile Kandy area.

The total death count since campaigning began, according to one estimate, is 59.

The state-run Daily News on Thursday said that President Chandrika Kumaratunga has ordered a special police probe into the incident.

Counting is going on amidst very heavy security and the final results are expected by evening.

The complicated electoral system does not allow announcement of the list of winners immediately as party votes are first counted before the number of seats won by each party in each district is decided. Winning candidates are thereafter identified based on the preference votes polled by them.

Meanwhile, an independent election violence monitoring body has submitted a detailed list of polling stations where it wanted re-polling in the wake of violence and mayhem, intimidation and malpractice.

The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said in a statement that its own monitors were attacked and assaulted in some places while gathering evidence of rigging.

It also demanded total re-poll for the estimated 80,000 Tamil voters living in LTTE-controlled areas after the army closed down entry points providing access to their polling stations for security reasons.

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