SINHALESE-MAJORITY ALLIANCE CAPTURES TAMIL FORT ON ITS OWN

WHILE everyone expected the National People's Power (NPP) to win the Sri Lankan parliamentary elections, the party's spectacular scale of victory in the results declared on Friday has surprised many.

- PON VASANTH

For the first time after the introduction of the new Constitution in 1978, which brought in the unicameral parliament, a single pre-poll alliance has won more than two-thirds majority. NPP has secured 159 of 225 seats (141 elected members and 18 through the national list based on proportional representation) in the parliament in the elections held on Thursday. However, more importantly, this is the first time in the country's history that a Sinhalese-majority formation, without the support of any established Tamil entity, has emerged as the leading party in regions with predominantly ethnic minority population.

The sole exception was Batticaloa, where the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), the largest Tamil party, won three of the five seats while NPP and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) won one each.

IN Jaffna, the nerve centre of Tamil nationalist politics, NPP won three of the six seats while ITAK, All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) and an independent group, led by Ramanathan Archuna, a lesser-known doctor who projected himself as an anti-corruption crusader, won one seat each.

In the other Tamil-dominated electoral districts of Vanni, Trincomalee, and Nuwara Eliya and Badulla (where hill country Tamils live) and Ampara (which has a mix of Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslims population), NPP has emerged as the topper.