61.   The provincial election will choose lawmakers who will govern with U.N. officials and NATO-led peacekeepers in what is seen as a major step toward self-government.

62.   The provincial elections will have no bearing on parliament or the presidency, but it is a barometer of Kumaratunga popularity.

63.   The political opposition called Friday for mass demonstrations in Sri Lanka to protest a provincial election that independent monitors say the ruling party rigged.

64.   The provincial election commissioner, Pisit Sukarat, predicted a cleaner election this time around because of the crackdown on campaign misdeeds.

65.   The provincial election will choose lawmakers who will govern with U.N. officials and NATO-led peacekeepers.

66.   The Sri Lankan government imposed emergency rule across the country Tuesday, a move that would allow President Chandrika Kumaratunga to postpone provincial elections scheduled for later this month.

67.   Voters resoundingly agreed Wednesday when they handed his New Democrats another huge majority in the provincial election despite rural hospital closures and higher taxes.

68.   Voters in five provincial elections last April were asked how they wanted to end the war.

69.   With exit polls predicting a humiliating defeat for his Hindu nationalist party in provincial elections, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has called a meeting of his political allies.

70.   In ANC provincial elections he narrowly lost his post as regional chairman to ANC intelligence chief Jacob Zuma.