Sri Lankan PM resigns after losing election

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Rathnasiri Wickremanayake, has resigned after losing the country’s general election.

The opposition United Front, which campaigned with a promise of kick-starting peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, won a majority of the Parliament’s 225 seats, ousting the hawkish PM from power.

A number of polling stations had their tallies cancelled because of attempted election fraud from both sides on the divided island.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting the Sinhalese-dominated government for 18 years in pursuit of an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island.