The massive victory of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council election came as a clear indicator of the northern Tamils’ disillusionment with the Sri Lankan government, despite its proclaimed post-war development drive.
An amalgam of five Tamil political parties, the TNA was widely expected to win this election but the scale of its victory announced on Sunday — the TNA cornered nearly 80 per cent of the votes to win 30 out of the total 38 seats — pointed to an apparent erosion of faith that the Tamils might have earlier had in the government that brought the bloody war to an end.
Recording a 67.52 per cent turnout in the first-ever Northern Provincial Council election — held after considerable external pressure, particularly from India — voters have now given the TNA a spectacular opportunity to work towards meaningful reconciliation, and a permanent solution to the Tamil question.
The turnout is significant, given reports of the Sri Lankan army’s attempt to intimidate voters in a few interior pockets, about which some local and international election monitors told The Hindu on Saturday, on condition of anonymity.