COLOMBO, Dec 6: Sri Lanka’s main opposition claimed victory on Thursday after a parliamentary vote tarnished by violence and vote rigging, as authorities extended a curfew amid fears of a backlash against supporters of the ruling party.

The United National Party (UNP) said it was on course for an outright majority that could breathe new life into Sri Lanka’s stuttering drive to clinch peace with separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

Election chief Dayananda Dissanayake went on television to announce that results could be delayed for at least another day while police and security forces enforced a 33-hour curfew to prevent clashes among rival parties.

But opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed victory and said he would form a government once legal formalities were completed by Dissanayake.

Wickremesinghe, who served as prime minister in the early 1990s, said his party received more than 49 per cent of the vote in Wednesday’s poll and he was confident the UNP would garner the 113 seats needed to hold a majority in the 225-member legislature.

“I appeal to all the people to maintain peace in the next few days till we form a government,” Wickremesinghe said. “We must begin a new era where we do away with confrontationist politics.”

Dissanayake said he had to consult secretaries of all political parties on Friday to decide what action to take over several polling booths affected by violence and rigging.

The election, conducted on a system of proportional representation, requires all ballots to be counted before the final party positions are announced.

Out of about 4.18 million ballots counted so far, the UNP had received 49.21 per cent, while the ruling People’s Alliance was trailing with 37.79 per cent. A Marxist party was a distant third with 8.47 per cent.

Officials said computer projections predicted the UNP would have between 113 to 118 seats in the assembly — sufficient for the party to form a government on its own.

State-run television abruptly stopped its anti-opposition editorial line and announced that Wickremesinghe’s UNP was set for a “magnificent victory”.

The blood-soaked election campaign was fought over the poor state of the economy and the long-running war against the Tamil Tigers.

Analysts called the apparent opposition victory a vote to revive the country’s moribund peace process and end decades of ethnic bloodshed which has claimed more than 60,000 lives.

The UNP campaigned to open talks with the Tigers by reviving a Norwegian-sponsored peace process while President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government advocated a more hawkish approach to the rebels.

The ruling party lost in both Kumaratunga’s home constituency of Gampaha and Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake’s Horana district, although Wickremanayake could still return to parliament under the proportional representation system.

Kumaratunga appealed for calm as relatives buried 10 members of the Muslim community gunned down on Wednesday, allegedly by PA supporters, in the central district of Kandy.

At least 60 people were killed during the five-week campaign period which saw bloody clashes between political parties.

Kumaratunga, who remains head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces at least until Dec 2005, could now be forced to work with a hostile parliament.

Joyful opposition supporters burst firecrackers as the results were announced over radio and television. Public celebrations, however, are banned for a week from the formation of a new government.

Wednesday’s election was the second in 14 months after the previous vote returned a hung parliament which collapsed in October following defections from the PA to the opposition.—AFP