SRI LANKA ? Eastern Sri Lanka residents voted today in their first major election, less than a year after the separatist rebels lost control of the region. The poll was hailed as a democratic milestone but marred by rebel attacks, one that left 11 people dead.

The government said the election was an important step in restoring normalcy to the Eastern Province, which it freed from 13 years of Tamil Tiger rule last July.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has painted the election as a tacit referendum on his costly battle to crush the rebels in their remaining stronghold in the north and end this Indian Ocean island nation’s 25-year civil war.