Campaigning begins for Jaffna polls

Campaigning has begun in the first local elections in fifteen years in the Jaffna peninsula in Sri Lanka - the former heartland of the Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

Four Tamil parties are the only ones contesting the elections, which are being held on January the twenty-ninth.

The Sri Lankan president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, said on Saturday that conditions for elections were not perfect in the Jaffna peninsula, which was captured by government troops two years ago.

But she said the government was determined to allow a Tamil leadership to take over the local administration.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service