DATE=10/12/00
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE= SRI LANKA VOTE RESULT (L)
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=COLOMBO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: After two days of vote counting and controversy over election
irregularities, Sri Lanka's ruling Peoples Alliance coalition has
emerged as the winner of Tuesdays parliamentary elections. V-O-A's Jim
Teeple reports from Colombo, the People's Alliance has emerged with the
largest number of seats in parliament, but short of an outright majority.
Text: President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Peoples Alliance coalition is
expected to be able to form a government with the help of smaller
leftist, minority Tamil, or Muslim parties. The Peoples Alliance won
107 seats outright with the main opposition United National Party taking
89 seats in the 225-seat parliament.
The vote was seen as a referendum on President Kumaratunga's plan to
amend Sri Lanka's constitution to give Tamil-minority areas in the north
and east of the country a degree of autonomy.
The election results were delayed by one day following what observers
say were serious election day irregularities, including vote-rigging,
the seizing of ballot boxes, and serious cases of violence that left
several people dead. More than 60 people died during the campaign in
attacks by Tamil separatists and inter-party violence. Local independent
election observers have called for re-polling in some areas. John
Cushnahan, the head of a 77-member observer mission from the European
Union, says the violations are serious, but they do not call into
question overall election results.
// CUSHNAHAN //
There have been problems in this election but I think the result
reasonably reflects the clearly expressed will of the Sri Lankan
people. I wish that many of the incidents did not happen but they did
-- but I believe again that the final result reasonably reflects their
political will.
// END ACTUALITY //
More than 60-thousand people have died during Sri Lanka's 17-year civil
war. Sri Lanka's president says she will attempt to revive her plan to
grant autonomy to Tamil minority-dominated areas in the north and east of the country calling it the key to ending the conflict -- by giving the country's Tamil minority a political alternative to joining the
separatist cause. At the same time' Mrs. Kumaratunga says she will
intensify efforts to defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels militarily, saying
all efforts to end the fighting through talks have failed. (Signed)
NEB/JLT/FC
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