The voter turnout was low in the morning hours in Sri Lanka's first election in its volatile Eastern Province since 1988, officials and election monitors said Saturday.
The polls opened at 7 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) in the three administrative districts Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee.
The voter turnout was particularly low in the Tamil minority dominated villages in the province, election monitors on the ground noted.
The overall polling rate in the province was just 10 percent inthe first two hours of poll, officials added.
"Polling was quite normal during the first two hours," Sunil Kannangara, the chief elections official in the Ampara town said.
"Polling in Tamil areas is generally low in the morning hours at any election. But they will come out and vote in the afternoon," N. M. S. K. Bandara, the chief election official in the Trincomalee town said.
The multi-ethnic Eastern Province has three communities, with Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim enjoying almost equal presence.
The election monitors said they had received a few complaints of chasing away and threats issued by certain groups in the Batticaloa district.
The opposition parties had warned that the election will not beheld in a free and fair environment due to a government backed armed group in the Batticaloa district.
The east was separated from the Northern Province in 2006 by a Supreme Court ruling after the two provinces remained as a single unit since 1987.
The government treated Saturday's election as a test of its popularity after it regained the Eastern Province from the Tamil Tigers' control in July last year.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article