Northern comfort

Elections in Sri Lanka-Banyan

FIRECRACKERS at dawn and a few weary smiles. As Jaffna’s palm trees swayed in the wind, northern Tamils in Sri Lanka were celebrating cautiously on September 22nd. Their favoured party all but swept the board in provincial elections the day before. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) scooped up 30 of 36 contested seats. Municipal and other local elections have been held here since 2009, when Sri Lanka’s three-decade long civil war ended. But this was the biggest poll, a test of northern Tamils’ perception of their place in the country. The ruling party of Sri Lanka was heavily defeated.

Northern Comfort by nelvely