Sri Lanka's minority Tamils are going to the polls to elect what they hope is a shot at self-rule after decades of ethnic bloodshed that claimed more than 100,000 lives.
Tamils in the country's battle-scarred northern province are voting for the first time to elect a semi-autonomous council on Saturday, in an election called amid international pressure on the Sinhalese-dominated government to share power with the main ethnic minority.
"Even though this is a local election, there is more interest in it locally and internationally," S. Arumainayaham, the top civil administrator in the provincial capital of Jaffna, told reporters.
Retired Supreme Court judge K. Wigneswaran, who is expected to be elected the region's chief minister, said he wants to work with Colombo on pushing his party's manifesto, which calls for "self-government" for Tamils.
A senior Jaffna-based journalist said the council could be the first step of a process to secure real political power for Tamils.
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"People see it as a start," said the journalist, who declined to be named because of repeated death threats. "This election is going to decide the political future of Tamils."
Wigneswaran's priority is war reparations, securing an army pull-out from the former zone, and taking back land the military still occupies four years after defeating Tamil Tiger rebels who fought for outright independence.
"I will try to work with the (Colombo) government," Wigneswaran told AFP in an interview at his office in Jaffna.
But, he said, he will take his case to the international community if Colombo fails to cooperate.
The election was promoted by the UN Human Rights Council as a step towards ethnic reconciliation in Sri Lanka after nearly four decades of fighting that killed up to 100,000 people, but the ballot is proving to be divisive as ever.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, who campaigned in Jaffna last week for his candidates, accused the TNA - a coalition of several Tamil groups, including ex-militants - of raising expectations of a separate state.
"The TNA is misleading the people by promising self-government and independence," he told a rally of his United People's Freedom Alliance.
Wigneswaran hit back on Friday, saying Rajapakse was maintaining an "occupation army" to keep Tamils under "constant surveillance".
"This is an occupation army. They are here for a political purpose and not for security reasons," he said. "They must go."
