President Mahinda Rajapaske says elections were free and fair

In a statement issued on Monday, President Rajapakse thanked all the parties involved in conducting free and fair elections; what he called 'the successful implementation of the Government's policy of restoring democracy'.

Rejecting polls as fake, the UNP termed it as replacing one terrorist group by another.

"This is not eradicating terrorism. This is establishing terrorism further by the government", UNP MP Luxman Kiriella told a media conference on Tuesday.

	Local polls in Batticaloa district held on March 10

Kiriella said that UNP still insists upon the establishment of independent commissions as an essential component of free and fair elections.

PAFFREL biased

Accusing the election monitors as biased, UNP say the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) had givien in to state terrorism.

Kiriella says people in the area did not want to come and complain about the abuses they suffered because of threats which terrorised them even before elections.

United National Party did not contest the elections saying it was not democratic.