Violence, fraud smear Sri Lanka polls

A bomb attack rocked Colombo during the start of election campaigning

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Widespread violence ahead of Wednesday's Sri Lankan parliamentary elections has claimed the lives of 41 people and left hundreds injured.

Sri Lanka's districts are relatively peaceful until an election is called, traditionally transforming them into battlegrounds and turning candidates into warlords equipped with guns and goons to ensure political success.

Topping the list of violent districts was Puttalam, 120 km (75 miles) from the capital Colombo, with more than 2,000 clashes in the six-week election campaign, the independent Center for Monitoring Election Violence said.

Supporters from political parties frequently take time off from conventional campaigning to rush the wounded to hospital, douse burning houses and, all too often, bury the dead.

'A war'

"This is not an election. This is a war," P. Dharmasena, an official of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), told Reuters news agency.

Although the violence may seem random, it is generally well organized to scare opponents and voters and make rigging easier.

"The general climate of fear is so acute that free voting looks quite impossible," Ben Saul, an Australian observer sent to Puttalam by the International Commission of Jurists told Reuters.

Campaign casualties are so high in the country that newspapers track them on charts next to the stock market indices.

A radio station in the capital Colombo reportedly even runs a phone-in competition for callers to guess the final death toll.

Living in fear

With polling to begin at 7:00a.m. (0100GMT), the elections are essentially a two horse race with the UNP us against the ruling Peoples' Alliance (PA).

Both parties have been accused of sowing terror. But their concern is not the number of their supporters, but rather the number of their weapons.

Hired thugs, often army deserters who fled the country's ethnic war, patrol Puttalam armed with grenades and automatic rifles, threatening rivals with bullets and beatings and firing randomly into the air or at windows.

"We live in fear. If we campaign we will pay with our lives," said Aruna Munasinghe, a PA supporter who watched his brother and cousin gunned down for trying to organize a party rally.

On the other hand, UNP supporter Samantha Abeyratne said he was clubbed senseless by men in military fatigues last month, and only regained consciousness when he was shot in the shin at point-blank range.

Journalists who also covered last year's parliamentary polls said armed PA gangs took over polling booths in many areas.

Voting was later annulled in several areas, and Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake described the poll as "anything but fair".

This year Dissanayake has put his faith in tougher security arrangements but police in Puttalam say they are rendered helpless because they are outgunned.

The issues

Security has been tightened around polling stations

A feature of the elections, violence is also at the core of electoral issues.

Both parties have each tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and both parties support a Norwegian brokered peace initiative.

The LTTE are in control of an area in the country's north and have been fighting for a separate state for 18 years.

More than 64,000 people have been killed in the ethnic war that shows no sign of abating.

The PA, which swept into power in 1994 on a platform of negotiation with the rebels, has recently relied more on military, political and diplomatic marginalization of the rebels.

Linked with the ethnic conflict is the nations dwindling economy. Sri Lanka's gross domestic product has been growing at its slowest rate in the last 30 years.

The PA says it is committed to reforms, blaming the current trend on the global downturn.

However, opinion polls show that the state of the economy is playing on the minds of voters who may favor the more reform-ready UNP.