Lankan ruling party wins local elections

COLOMBO, May 07 (AFP): Sri Lanka's leftist government won local council elections but with significantly lower margins, in its first test since sweeping national polls last year, official results showed on Wednesday.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's coalition received the most votes in 265 out of the 339 councils, but fell short of an outright majority in about half of them.

The main opposition SJB won just 14 councils, while the country's main minority Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, performed better, winning 35.

The parties of former presidents Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa failed to win control of a single council, but between them secured 1,123 of the 8,299 council seats.