More than 1.7 million voters were expected to cast ballots yesterday in a key provincial election in Sri Lanka, seen as a test of the ruling coalition’s popularity after defeating the Tamil Tiger separatists.
Government troops crushed the rebel group in May, ending nearly three decades of civil war.
That military victory boosted the popularity of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s coalition United People’s Freedom Alliance among ethnic majority Sinhalese.
Voting started early yesterday for the assembly in Rajapaksa’s native Sinhalese-majority province.
Fifty-two political parties and independent groups have fielded 1,091 candidates for 53 seats on the provincial council. Results are expected today.
The ruling alliance already controls seven of the country’s nine provinces with large majorities.
After yesterday’s vote, only the northern province — the former battle zone where parts were controlled by the rebels — will have yet to vote.
Rajapaksa’s main rival, the United National Party (UNP), had favored negotiations with the Tamil Tigers but has been largely sidelined after the government’s successful military campaign.
The opposition parties have accused the government of using military victories for political gain and claimed the ruling coalition misused state properties during the election.
“This isn’t a fair election,” said Tissa Attanayake, UNP’s general secretary, accusing the government of using state resources for campaigning.
Sri Lankan Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena dismissed the opposition accusations, saying “they are trying to find excuses for their defeat even before the results are announced.”
Tamil rebels fought to create a separate homeland for the ethnic minority Tamils. About 75 percent of Sri Lanka’s 20 million people are ethnic Sinhalese and 18 percent are Tamils.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home