REFUGEE

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s party won provincial elections in the country’s south and described the result as a sign of public support for its victory over the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance won 38 seats in the 55-member Southern Provincial Council, with 67.88 percent of the vote, according to the Department of Elections. The main opposition United National Party won 14 seats in the vote, held on Oct. 10.

The result is an endorsement of the leadership of Rajapaksa, who “liberated the country and its people from decades of terrorism,” Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said in a statement on a government Web site.

The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections said there was a high-level of election-related violence in the run up to the vote and called on the government to implement an amendment to the constitution to establish an independent election commission.

Rajapaksa declared victory over the Tamil Tigers in May after rebel leaders were captured or killed, ending the group’s 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland.

His government is under increasing international pressure to allow hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians held in camps in the country’s north since the end of the civil war to return home.

Sri Lankan officials say the resettlement of more than 280,000 displaced people depends on ensuring security in the north and clearing mines from conflict areas.