In an atmosphere nothing short of red-hot to vote today in Sri Lanka from 7 to 16 (local time) in the first parliamentary elections after the bloody civil war that has pitted for 26 years with government troops and separatist Tamil Tiger which ended in May last year.
in the country have been opened 11,098 polling stations where they are working 123 000 scrutineers. Over 70 000 police and soldiers are involved in ensuring public order. President Mahinda Rajapaksa had dissolved parliament in February after his victory in the presidential elections of 26 January when he had beaten with 1 million votes in 8000 (as is recounted in a separate post) the former army chief Sarath Fonseka currently in prison on charges of corruption and attempted insurrection and waiting to be tried by court martial.
The parliamentary candidates are total 7620 divided among 36 parties and 10 independent movements
voters are over 14 million, and forecasts say that the Alliance United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) which is part of the President should win the two-thirds majority needed to initiate reforms constitutional.
The consequences of the civil war are clearly visible in the island where the economic situation is very serious and where thousands of people still live in refugee camps.
The election campaign was marked by numerous confrontations, some of which are in focus. Further controversy has been unleashed in recent days because of failure to comply with the closing date of the election campaign (last Monday at midnight) by some candidates who continue to hold meetings in public places and that they refused to remove their posters.
As recently as last night the main opposition United National Party (UNP) has accused the government of having used public buildings and vehicles to campaign and to have forced the press to support only the party of the incumbent president blocking the independent newspapers and journalists kidnapped by government opponents
The electoral system of proportional representation in Sri Lanka and the Parliament are elected the candidates who obtained the most votes and then Preferences. E 'own preferences for the fight that led to many clashes between the candidates of the same party. This was a physical confrontation that resulted in 51 wounded while approximately 72 people ended up in hospital due to the tension created by the electoral environment. The country's authorities have said that from Tuesday to today there have been approximately 279 incidents in which one person was killed.
observers believe that the Tamil and Muslim minorities that are in the north and east of the country can influence the vote, especially in colleges in the presidential election in which he had obtained a majority of votes in the General Fonseka.
The challenge of the President is to win a large majority in the south to compensate for the votes of the areas inhabited by minorities.
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