Armed ex-Tigers seen winning east Sri Lanka poll

By Simon Gardner

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Residents in Sri Lanka's war-ravaged east voted for the first time in more than a decade on Monday, but with armed former Tamil Tiger rebels seen as the likely poll winners, peace remains precarious.

The local elections are seen as a dry run for a wider provincial vote in the north and east -- the government's blueprint for devolution in minority Tamil areas it hopes will go hand-in-hand with its push to win a 25-year civil war.

"Our prayer is for calm and no war," said 53-year-old Alagaiah Kouindasamy, who was displaced after the Sri Lankan army recaptured areas of the lush district of paddy fields, scrub jungle and lagoons from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam last year.

"Because of the conflict we were displaced, lost our livelihoods. There was tension and fear, artillery was being fired. We just want normalcy."

Rights groups and diplomats have questioned the government's decision to endorse in the elections a breakaway rebel faction, the TMVP, which helped it defeat the Tigers in the eastern district of Batticaloa. The group is accused of abuses such as child soldier recruitment, abductions and killing.

Pradeep Master, Batticaloa political wing leader of the newly-registered party, is a former Tiger who joined the rebels as a child soldier. He is tipped as Batticaloa's next mayor and is running on a ticket with the government.

A host of other former militant groups who joined the democratic mainstream in the 1980s are also taking part in the poll, as well as the island's main Muslim party.

But with the TMVP given free rein in Batticaloa for months as the military battled the rebels, and the main opposition UNP and Tiger-backed TNA boycotting the poll, some say the election is a farce.