June 27, Colombo: Sri Lanka government has decided to hold elections in the Eastern Province after the operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) ends, government sources said.

Accordingly, the government has decided to hold the local government elections for Pradeshiya Sabhas and Urban Councils first. The government intends to hold the elections for the delinked Eastern Province in the second stage.

The operations to capture the Eastern Province from the LTTE’ hold have now come to the last stage, the government says. The operations commenced a year ago succeeded to capture the entire area in the Eastern Province controlled by the Tamil Tigers. Only the last bastion of the LTTE in the Thoppigala jungles still remains in LTTE hold.

Defense spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said in the weekly media briefing today that the security forces are still in the process of clearing the LTTE strongholds and that 99% of the LTTE held area has already been cleared.

However, it seems that the Tamil Tigers have now shifted to guerilla warfare after giving up the areas previously controlled by them.