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The Sri Lanka Eastern Provincial Council elections, 2008 was held on May 10, 2008 to elect members to Sri Lanka’s Eastern Provincial Council. Following the successful completion of local government elections in the Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka’s Elections Department announced on March 14 that the elections for the Eastern Provincial Council were to be held in May, after a lapse of 20 years.〔''newKerala.com'' (Sri Lanka to hold eastern provincial elections in May )〕 It was only the second time direct elections are held to select members for the council, and first time for the Eastern Provincial Council alone, after it was separated from the North-Eastern Provincial Council in 2006. Nominations for contesting in the elections were accepted from March 27 to April 3, and a total of 1342 candidates from 18 political parties and 56 independent groups contested the elections where over 980,000 people were eligible to vote.〔''Sri Lanka Department of Elections'', (Elections to Provincial Councils - 2008 )〕〔''Xinhua'' (Nominations closed for eastern Sri Lanka elections )〕 Both of Sri Lanka’s major political parties, the opposition United National Party and the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance took part in the election in coalitions with a number of other parties, but under their own names. According to the official results released by the Elections Department, the ruling UPFA were victorious in the election, winning 20 seats, while the opposition UNP won 15 seats. Two smaller parties, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Tamizh Democratic National Alliance also won 1 seat each.〔 ==Background== The Provincial Council system was first set up in Sri Lanka following the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in 1987. Although Sri Lanka has 9 provinces, as part of the agreement the Northern and Eastern provinces were merged into a single North Eastern Province, and a joint North-Eastern Provincial Council formed. This was done following demands of Tamil political parties, who consider the north and east of Sri Lanka as their "traditional homeland", and wanted to administer the area as a single entity, against the protests of some members of the Sinhalese and Muslim communities. The first elections were held for the North Eastern Provincial council on November 19, 1988. The Tamil nationalist parties Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF) won 35 and 12 seats respectively, while the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) won 17 seats and the ruling United National Party won one seat. Varatharaja Perumal was appointed Chief Minister by the victorious EPRLF, who also announced that they would form a ruling coalition with the ENDLF.〔 However, as and relations soured with India, and renewed fighting broke out between the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization (the Tamil Tigers), the North-Eastern Provincial Council was dissolved in 1990 and its administration taken over by the government. The area was ruled by the government since then, with parts of it under the control of the Tamil Tigers.〔''IndiaeNews'' (Sri Lanka to hold eastern provincial elections in May )〕 While fresh elections were held for the other 7 provincial councils in 1993, and subsequently every five years later, no elections were held for the North Eastern due to the situation on the ground. Throughout the 1990s, control over parts of the province changed hands between the government and LTTE. When the ceasefire agreement was signed in 2002, parts of all 3 districts composing the Eastern Province were under the control of the LTTE. As the ceasefire broke down in mid-2006, the government launched a major military offensive to clear the Eastern Province of the LTTE. The Sri Lankan military fully achieving this objective in July 2007,〔''Daily News'' (Tigers’ last Eastern bastion falls )〕 and plans were immediately drawn up to hold local elections for the area.〔''Daily News'' (Bill in Parliament soon for Eastern polls )〕 Elections were however delayed due to the unstable situation on the ground, as it was the first time in 14 years that some parts of the province came under the control of the government. In the meantime, in a landmark decision the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ruled on October 16, 2006 that since other conditions set the merger were not satisfied, the merger of the two provinces was "null and void without having any legal effect", thereby separating the administrative functions of the two provinces. As a precursor to the Provincial Council elections, the government first held elections to local government bodies in the Batticaloa district on March 10, with the TamilEela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) winning 8 of the 9 bodies up for grabs. (see (official results )) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sri Lanka Eastern Provincial Council elections, 2008」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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