COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Candidates did last-minute stumping in Sri Lanka's Northern province, where Saturday's elections are the first since the country's civil war ended in 2009.
Thirty-eight seats are up for grabs on the Northern Provincial Council,Time magazine reported. The province has 714,000 eligible voters.
The Northern province is the only one of Sri Lanka's nine provinces that has never had its own council, a BBC report said.
Hoping to win big is the Tamil National Alliance, which is campaigning on a platform of more provincial autonomy, Time said.
Running against the dominant Tamil National Alliance are candidates from the United People's Freedom Alliance -- the party of President Mahinda Rajapaksa -- or from parties aligned with it.
"We want to address the people's needs like jobs, houses and agriculture development," said Sinnathurai Tavarajah, a United People's Freedom Alliance ministerial candidate.
The Tamil National Alliance has the largest representation in the national Parliament from the Tamil-dominated north, where more than 90 percent of the provincial population is Tamil.
"For the Tamils, the election is yet another opportunity to raise the call for more power sharing," Abraham Sumanthiran, a TNA lawmaker, said.
