The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Batticaloa

A pro-government Tamil militia made up of Tamil Tiger defectors has swept to victory in local elections in Sri Lanka's volatile east, officials results showed Tuesday.

The armed Tamil People's Liberation Party (TMVP) secured 72 out of the 101 council seats in Monday's vote in Batticaloa district, the elections department said.

The government plans to use the poll as a curtain raiser for a larger provincial council election later this year to allow Tamils, who are a national minority but are in the majority in Batticaloa, to have greater autonomy.

"This peaceful election underlines the aim of the government to create an environment in which all our people could live in freedom and harmony," President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a statement.

The TMVP, backed by Rajapakse's ruling People's Alliance, took complete control of eight out of nine councils, with the ninth council going to TMVP proxies.

The vote had been a one-horse race for the TMVP, a breakaway militia whose defection helped government forces push the leading separatist outfit, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), out of the east last year.