Colombo, Aug. 9 : President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has won Jaffna but lost Vavuniya in the first polls after the civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) concluded in May this year.

According to the BBC, the turnout for the polls has been low and ballots are still being counted in the southern province of Uva.

The local elections came a day after the defence ministry said it had arrested the new head of the Tamil Tigers, Selvarasa Pathmanathan.

According to preliminary results, the UPFA secured 13 of the 23 seats available in Jaffna on Saturday.

The Tamil National Alliance, a fractious but broadly pro-LTTE parliamentary grouping, came second with eight seats.

In Vavuniya, where turnout was 52 percent, the UPFA was pushed into third place, winning only two seats. The TNA came first with five of the 11 seats on the council, followed by a moderate Tamil grouping.

It was generally believed that the government would do well, having a broad coalition led in the north by a powerful and stridently anti-Tiger Tamil party, and having promised a "northern spring" of major development projects that would gradually return the region to normality.

As a result of its victory in the war, the government is expected to have done well in the Sinhalese-dominated southern province of Uva. (ANI)