Sri Lankan local elections, 2009
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34 seats across 2 local authorities |
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| Turnout | 28.09% | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Local elections were held in Sri Lanka on 8 August 2009 for two local councils in the north of the country: Jaffna Municipal Council and Vavuniya Urban Council. They were the first elections held in the country since the government declared victory in the 26-year-old civil war on 18 May 2009. They were also the first local elections held in the Northern Province in more than 11 years. Both towns had been under government control for many years. The government won the Jaffna Municipal Council contest by securing 13 of the 23 seats. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won the Vavuniya Urban Council contest by securing 5 of the 11 seats. Turnout was very low in Jaffna (22%) but it was better in Vavuniya (52%).
On 25 May 2009 the government announced that local elections would be held in Jaffna and Vavuniya. Nominations took place between 18 June 2009 and 25 June 2009. After the nominations closed the Sri Lankan Department of Election announced that the elections would take place on 8 August 2009, the same day as the Uva Provincial Council elections.
The TNA has said that the elections are being held too early, with so many of the electorate displaced. It expected the Jaffna elections to be violent and the results to be rigged, just like the 2008 Eastern Provincial Council elections. The United National Party (UNP) and the People’s Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) have called on the election authorities to bring in foreign election observers.
Veerasingham Anandasangaree, president of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), has accused a Tamil government minister of "terrorising the residents of Jaffna in the run-up to the Municipal Council elections". It is believed that the minister Anandasangaree was referring to is Douglas Devananda, leader of the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).
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