Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger proxy party the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will contest the forthcoming local polls in the Indian Ocean island country's troubled northern and eastern regions.

The TNA officials said Sunday the party would field candidates for all the local councils in the two provinces but are of the opinion that the present climate in the region was not conducive to holding an election.

Mavai Senathirajah, one of its senior legislators, told reporters that the party would call on the Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake to urge him to postpone the election.

Senathirajah said the TNA would contest the election with the objective of preventing any other group hostile to them from taking control of the councils.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led boycott in the presidential election held in November last year forced the Tamils in the two regions not to use their franchise.

But the Tigers encouraged voters to exercise their vote in the parliamentary election held in April 2004 which resulted in TNA garnering 22 seats in the 225 member parliament.

The elections chief has already called nominations for the local councils election which will be accepted between Feb. 9 and Feb. 16.

The dates for the election is yet to be announced and they may be held in April, the elections officials speculated.

The last local council elections in the north and east were held in 1998. The 2002 elections were held in all provinces other than the north and east.

Source: Xinhua