Colombo: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's party today (July 11,2004) swept the key provincial council elections characterized by a low turnout, officials said in Colombo. Her Marxist-backed United People's Freedom Alliance won all six councils that went to the polls yesterday, election officials said as final results were tallied.

The six councils comprised of 15 districts. The President's party won outright in 14 out of the 15 districts. They said about half of the 9.6 million electorate had turned out to vote, making it one of the most low polling elections in recent years. Kumaratunga herself stayed away from voting because she was "indisposed", a spokesman for her office said.

It was the second local election since the April 2 Parliamentary vote, which was called four years ahead of schedule to settle a power struggle between Kumaratunga and her rival, then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Provincial councils are the highest level of local Government in Sri Lanka. Nearly 9.6 million voters over the age of 18 years were eligible yesterday to elect 316 council members from among 4,134 candidates representing 23 political parties and 32 independent groups, officials said.

The council election was initially thrown into doubt after polls chief Dayananda Dissanayake, 62, suffered a heart attack last week, leaving the vote literally depending on the man's life. Officials said they expected Dissanayake to make an appearance at the office today to sign the final results.