Repeat vote in two S Lanka seats

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/8631329.stm

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Repeat polls for Sri Lanka's April parliamentary elections are being held in two districts where the ballots were annulled because of violence.

Security is tight in Nawalapitiya and Trincomalee districts and monitors have reported no violence so far.

The result will make no difference to the outcome of the elections in which President Mahinda Rajapaksa's governing coalition has already won a majority.

His United People's Freedom Alliance won 117 of 180 seats announced so far.

The assembly has 225 seats.

The president's main rival, Gen Fonseka, stood for election from within jail.

An independent group, the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections, said there were problems with the vote. It said a majority of Tamil refugees in the north had been denied the right to vote.

The poll was the first parliamentary election since Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009.