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Charles Haviland reports that a fake edition of a major newspaper has been printed, wrongly claiming a Tamil opposition candidate has defected
Voters in Sri Lanka's north have held their first-ever elections for a semi-autonomous council, four years after the army defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.
The Tamil-majority Northern Province, which was first promised such a body decades ago, is the only region that has never had its own council.
Voters in the main city Jaffna told the BBC they hoped the vote would result in a greater voice for Sri Lankan Tamils.
The run-up to the election has seen allegations of army intimidation.
But this has been firmly denied by the authorities.
Voters in Jaffna had their fingernails marked with indelible ink after casting their ballot.
One elderly woman told the BBC: "We want a settlement for the Tamils. That's why we came to vote this time. We've been waiting so many years - now we want peace."
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Andrew North reports from Sri Lanka: ''There is a real sense of fear here''
But the BBC's Charles Haviland in Jaffna says that there have already been reports of malpractice.
The editor of the main northern newspaper, Uthayan, told the BBC that a whole print-run of a fake edition of the paper had appeared, falsely telling readers that the main opposition group, the Tamil National Alliance, was boycotting the election.
The fake paper also said that Ananthi Sasitharan, a prominent Tamil National Alliance candidate, had defected to the government. Editor Premnath Thevanayagam blamed the army.
On Friday, supporters of Ms Sasitharan were attacked outside her home. She herself managed to leave unhurt but eight others were wounded.
At the scene
The Mangayarkkarasi school, a red-tiled compound nestled beneath huge spreading trees, is today a polling station.
From 06:40, men and women, young and old, have flocked to cast their votes for the Northern Province council.
Some of the elderly have difficulty walking; some are disabled. Many arrive by bicycle. Others come in family groups - there is a real sense of occasion.
"I last did this in 1987," a middle-aged man says. "I think I can expect something for the Tamils' benefit now."
In the first three hours, about 400 of the polling station's registered 2,500 voters have come. Each person tells us that they believe their vote will make a difference.
"They said they were looking for me and they wanted to kill me," she is quoted as telling the AFP news agency. Her husband was a senior member of the Tamil Tigers but disappeared after surrendering to the government in 2009.
A lawyer for a poll monitoring group was also assaulted at her home. He said the gunmen were from the army but it dismissed that accusation as "baseless".
Vast swathes of the region were once strongholds of Tamil Tiger rebels, who fought against the mainly Sinhalese army for a separate homeland as Sri Lanka was plunged into a bitter and bloody civil war for 26 years.
The rebels were defeated in May 2009 but the final phase of that war remains dogged by war crimes allegations, and the government's rights record since then has come in for trenchant criticism.
The army still maintains a heavy presence.
Election rhetoric"Start Quote
End QuoteThe mood among most Tamils in northern Sri Lanka is far more downcast as they prepare to vote"
Our correspondent says that there is an atmosphere of bitterness and violence in the north and that election rhetoric has been polarised.
The vote goes to the heart of how the country should accommodate its ethnic minority who complain of being second class citizens without a say in their own affairs.
As they vote for 38 provincial councillors, the people of the north are expected to back the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) - a political group that was once in effect a proxy for the Tamil rebels but now seeks greater devolution within a united country.
Their main rivals, the ruling United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidates, have been arguing that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa deserves credit for ending the war and bringing development to the region.
Human rights warningThe government has vehemently denied accusations of war crimes at the end of the war and says it has launched its own inquiries into alleged rights abuses and disappearances.
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Sri Lankan elections - in 60 seconds
The conduct of these elections is being closely observed as Colombo prepares to host a Commonwealth summit in November. The Canadian prime minister has already said he will not attend.
After UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay visited Sri Lanka earlier this month, she said the country was becoming increasingly authoritarian and feared that democracy had been undermined and the rule of law eroded. The government rejected her comments as "prejudiced".
The conflict between the government and the Tamil Tigers left at least 100,000 people dead, but there are still no confirmed figures for tens of thousands of civilian deaths in the last months of battle: estimates range between 9,000 and 75,000.
One UN investigation said it was possible that up to 40,000 people had been killed in that time. The government puts the figure at 9,000.
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