Irregularities Mar Vote in Sri Lanka

Parliamentary elections plagued by violence ended Wednesday amid killings, ballot theft and an army blockade that prevented as many as 130,000 minority Tamils from reaching the polls.

More than 70% of Sri Lanka’s 12.4 million eligible voters cast ballots for the 225-seat Parliament, the national Election Commission reported.

Results from three of the country’s 22 districts showed the governing People’s Alliance and the main opposition United National Party running neck and neck.

Officials reported 10 deaths in political violence during the vote, including six members of the main Muslim party killed when gunmen fired on their van, injuring seven others, independent poll observers and hospital officials said.

A 9-year-old boy was shot to death in his front yard as government supporters and opposition activists battled in the northern coastal town of Puttalam, officials said.

Political violence has claimed 57 lives since campaigning began Oct. 21, the poll observers said.

The government imposed a curfew from 9:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. and banned all protests, rallies and parades for a week to curb more outbreaks of violence on the Indian Ocean island of 19 million people.

The key issues in the vote were Sri Lanka’s sinking economy and the 18-year offensive by Tamil separatists that has killed more than 64,000 people. The government wants to intensify the war, while the political opposition seeks peace talks with rebels, who are fighting for a Tamil homeland.

The army said it blockaded roads in the north and east that Tamils would have used to reach polling stations because of intelligence reports that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam planned to mix with would-be voters and disrupt balloting.

Local candidates and election officials in the Tamil areas said 130,000 were affected by the blockade; the Election Commission estimated that 80,000 Tamils were kept from voting.

Independent election monitors reported various disruptions by armed gangs stuffing ballot boxes, snatching polling cards, shooting at voters, threatening to kill poll observers and using vehicles to block access to polling stations. A grenade explosion injured 13 people near one station.