COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka's ruling party has won a
resounding victory in elections for a southern provincial assembly,
securing more than 67 percent of the votes cast.
The elections department says President Mahinda Rajapaksa's
United People's Freedom Alliance won 38 out of the 55 seats in the
council.
Sunday's result is a sign of the strong support Rajapaksa enjoys
in his native province after leading a successful military campaign
to defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels' 25-year separatist insurgency in
May.
The U.N. estimates that 80,000 to 100,000 people were killed in
the civil war.
The ruling alliance now controls eight of the country's nine
provinces with large majorities.