Colombo, Sept 17: Sri Lanka today postponed elections due this month in the island's war-ravaged northern and eastern provinces after peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels opened in Thailand.
The Deputy Commissioner of Elections, M C Arunthavachelvam, said that the vote for 53 local councils scheduled for September 25 has been postponed until June 25, 2003. Parties representing Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority, which dominates the provinces, had been asking that the elections not be held just as the Norwegian-brokered peace process begins.
Bureau Report