
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994                   TAG: 9408180112
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW DELHI, INDIA                                LENGTH: Short

SOCIALIST ALLIANCE WINS IN SRI LANKA

A socialist alliance that wants to try negotiating an end to Sri Lanka's 11-year civil war emerged as the top vote-getter in the troubled island nation's parliamentary election, official results showed Wednesday.

But even as backers of the People's Alliance celebrated their victory, the ruling United National Party was trying furiously to forge a coalition to safeguard its unbroken 17-year grip on power.

With the voters' verdict now leaving no single party with a working legislative majority, whoever forms Sri Lanka's new government will find it a ``dicey affair,'' predicted Gamini Wijesekara, National Party general secretary.

In Tuesday's vote, the leftist People's Alliance won 105 seats to the ruling party's 94, according to the tally issued by the election commissioner's office. The other 26 seats were held by minority Hindu and Muslim parties.

- Associated Press

by CNB