Sri Lanka's government party(Mahinda's party) United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has recorded a significant victory in the provincial and local elections held Saturday.
But still a party that backs the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels won a council in elections near Sri Lanka's former war zone, results showed Sunday, in a sign that separatists still attract popular support.
The Tamil National Alliance, a front for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), took five seats on the Vavuniya municipal council, while President Mahinda Rajapakse's People's Alliance got only two.
Turnout among the 125,000 eligible voters was 28 percent in Tamil-majority Jaffna and Vavuniya.
"The Tamil National Alliance winning the Vavuniya council is a sign that there is democracy. It also shows that the election was free and fair," a senior government official told.
The Tigers' new leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, was detained in Malaysia on Wednesday and flown to Sri Lanka for questioning by the government.
Pathmanathan, who was based outside the country, had been attempting to rebuild the movement from overseas after its founding chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in the final stages of fighting in May.
Analysts say the popularity of President Rajapaksa has once again been proved in the results following the government's success in defeating the rebels militarily.
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