Separatist rebels destroyed a navy cargo ship on Saturday true hours after a bombing blamed on the group killed 11 people in eastern Sri Lanka — violence that cast a dense mass completely pivotal provincial elections scheduled without interruption the side of later in the day.

The government hailed the elections as a key step in restoring normalcy to the Eastern Province, which it freed from 13 years of Tamil Tiger rule be unconsumed July.

Sri Lanka’s soldierly said Tamil rebels bombed and sank a naval establishment cargo ship in the eastern port town of Trincomalee early Saturday.

Navy prolocutor D.K.P. Dassanayake says the rebels attacked the ship with an underwater explosive about 2:15 a.m. He said no one was aboard and there were no injuries.

On Friday, the opposition and absolute observers raised questions about the polls, accusing the ruling party of bad conduct in its effort to ensure a victory it sees as its fair reward.

Opposition candidates said former rebels allied through the government threatened them to withdraw, promised retribution against their supporters and made it closely impossible to campaign.

“This election is a sham,” said Rauff Hakeem, head of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, which has formed an distinction alliance through the opposition United National Party.

Aim to ’sabotage’ election

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has painted the election while a unspoken referendum put on his costly battle to crush the rebels in their remaining stronghold in the boreal and end this Indian Ocean island stock’s 25-year affable war.

The rebels have been fighting from the time of 1983 beneficial to more independent homeland for the ethnological Tamil pupilage in the north and east after decades of marginalization under governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority.

The military, with the help of a breakaway rebel disorder known as the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, or TMVP, seized control of the east last year.

“Nobody thought when we first liberated it … that the government would have elections and hand over this to the people, so its exceedingly symbolic,” said Basil Rajapaksa, a lawmaker and the president’s brother, who is the government’s point man on the region.

In a reminder the rebels could still launch deadly attacks here, the military blamed the Tamil Tigers for a parcel bomb that exploded about 5:40 p.m Friday in a small restaurant in Ampara, 130 miles east of Colombo, one of the largest towns in the province.

“This is to sabotage the election,” said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.

High security at polls

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls for comment.

The impugn was carried used up despite the presence of 28,000 police officers and an extra 4,000 soldiers sent to the province to stable the polls.

The controlling party is running in a coalition with the former rebels of the TMVP, whom residents and human rights groups accuse of carrying without abductions and killings, running illegal compulsion rings and forcibly recruiting children into their ranks.

In the weeks leading up to the vote, the government announced huge grants for the impoverished region and insisted an opposition victory would convey back rebel rule.

“A vote for the government is a vote for peace and development. A vote for the opposition will be an endorsement of (Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai) Prabhakaran,” President Rajapaksa told a rally last week.

Election not fair and free: monitoring collection

However, ruling party officials were misusing government resources and the state media to bolster their chances, and tension in the province prevented many persons candidates from campaigning, aforesaid Kingsley Rodrigo, head of the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections, every independent election monitoring group.

“This is not a free and fair election,” he said.

Arumugam Jagan, a 27-year-old Tamil construction contractor, said he decided to let flow after city council elections were held in March through little violence or terror. But the main opposition parties boycotted those polls, leaving little competition for the government and the former rebels, who won in a overpower.

After Jagan announced he was running as an obstacle candidate in these elections, TMVP leaders demanded he drop out and threatened retribution against him and his supporters, he uttered.

When he refused, his campaign posters were torn down or defaced. He cancelled all public rallies under threat, and some of his volunteers quit. Others were attacked as they campaigned, they said. Like many candidates, he was forced to bring two police bodyguards by him on the campaign trail.

The chief part of the TMVP, known by his nom de guerre Pillaiyan, denied menace Jagan and accused him of fatiguing to shape an asylum claim to move in all directions.

Pillaiyan said it was his party — not Jagan’s — that had been victimized. He denied allegations his group was recruiting child soldiers and threatening voters.

He said his supporters remained armed, a elucidation theme of contention in the preference, but only for self defence.

© The Canadian Press, 2008