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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shameer" data-source="post: 6506540" data-attributes="member: 2529">Voting has begun in a tense Sri Lanka amid heightened fears of election violence.Several bombs exploded in the Tamil heartland of Jaffna even before polls opened for the crucial presidential election between Sarath Fonseka, the former army chief who led the campaign against the Tigers and President Mahinda Rajapaksa,At least two bombs went off outside the home of a ruling party activist in the Jaffna peninsula, the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said."We have a complaint that two bombs were thrown at the home of Subramaniam Sharma, an organiser for the (ruling) Sri Lanka Freedom Party early this morning," spokesman D. M. Dissanayake said.There were no casualties but, like last week's bomb attack on the Colombo villa of Tiran Alles, a key opposition supporter, it only serves to increase concerns that election violence could spiral out of control, undermining a newfound peace that took three decades to achieve.Already four people have been killed in more than 773 registered cases of political violence, police say, compared to about 125 in the last presidential poll in 2005.So unruly has campaigning been that Ban Ki Moon, the UN chief, and Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the EU foreign policy head, both appealed for restraint this week.This morning residents on Jaffna said they heard four pre-dawn blasts but the source of the explosions was unclear said Sun Jayasekara, a CMEV monitor in Jaffna, 250 miles (400 km) north of Colombo."We are not sure from where the blasts originated or who was responsible," Mr Jayasekara said, adding that it shattered the relative calm in the region ahead of the vote.Although there have been no reliable polls, both candidates appear to command strong Sinhalese followings, and the 12.5 percent Tamil minority, who suffered most from the government offensive against the rebels , may yet prove to be kingmakersGovernment forces wrested control over Jaffna in December 1995 from Tamil Tiger rebels who were completely crushed in May last year.The military lifted a night curfew in Jaffna ahead of Tuesday's presidential election, but the military maintains a large presence in the former stronghold of the Tamil separatists.Source :<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7002637.ece" target="_blank">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7002637.ece</a>very bad!</blockquote>

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