Sri Lanka: Election charade in eastern province

The Supreme Court de-merged the province in October 2006 on the basis of a petition by the Sinhala extremist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The ruling came just months after President Mahinda Rajapakse plunged the island back to open war by ordering offensives to seize LTTE territory in breach of the 2002 ceasefire agreement.

The court decision put a further nail in the coffin of the so-called international peace process, as some form of autonomy for the merged province had been central to negotiations to end the war. While the Rajapakse government did not initiate the court case, it made no move to oppose the petition. The JVP is nominally on the opposition benches, but its parliamentary support has been a key factor in propping up the government.