Sri Lanka's main Tamil party won a landslide victory Sunday in landmark elections in the battle-scarred north, raising hopes of some degree of self-rule for the ethnic minority after decades of war.

The opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won 30 out of 38 seats in the first elections for a provincial council in the former war zone, amid international pressure for the majority Sinhalese to share power with Tamils four years after the end of the bloody separatist conflict.

TNA leader C.V. Wigneswaran said the results were an overwhelming vote for self-rule for Tamils. He repeated his demand for the military to withdraw from the Tamil-dominated north, saying there was no reason for its presence since the end of the war in 2009.

"That (army presence) is the primary problem the Tamils of the northern province are having today," Wigneswaran told foreign media in the region's capital, Jaffna, shortly after results were announced.

"You have to get rid of the army. They must be put in barracks somewhere else," said Wigneswaran, who is set to become the region's chief minister.

Saturday's vote in the former rebel stronghold has been promoted by the UN Human Rights Council as a step toward ethnic reconciliation following the 26-year war that claimed over 100,000 lives.

The national government of President Mahinda Rajapakse has been under pressure to share power with Tamils, who are a minority nationally but a majority in the north.

The TNA swept all five districts in the election for the semi-autonomous Northern Provincial Council, results from the Department of Elections showed. The poll for the council was held amid claims the military tried to intimidate and harass voters and a Tamil candidate.

Rajapakse's United People's Freedom Alliance won just seven seats in a humiliating defeat for the president, who has won almost every major election since he led the campaign that crushed Tamil Tigers in 2009.

A Muslim party won one seat on the council.

In the district of Jaffna, 400 kilometers north of Colombo and home to over 1 million Tamils, the TNA secured more than 84 percent of the vote, exceeding its projections of 66 percent.

There were no public signs of celebrations on Sunday in Jaffna where the military maintains a large presence.

Wigneswaran said he was open to talks with the president on power-sharing arrangements in the north, and was seeking devolution in a united Sri Lanka, as set out in a statute in 1987, rather than separation.

"There is a fear of separation, but all we are asking for is a federal state which exists within the boundaries of Sri Lanka," Wigneswaran said. "We are for an undivided Sri Lanka and self-rule under a federal system."

AFP