COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka's ruling party has won a resounding victory in elections for a southern provincial assembly, securing more than 67 percent of the votes cast.
The elections department says President Mahinda Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance won 38 out of the 55 seats in the council.
Sunday's result is a sign of the strong support Rajapaksa enjoys in his native province after leading a successful military campaign to defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels' 25-year separatist insurgency in May.
The U.N. estimates that 80,000 to 100,000 people were killed in the civil war.
The ruling alliance now controls eight of the country's nine provinces with large majorities.