Sri Lankans began voting on Tuesday in the country's first national election since the end of a 25-year conflict in May, with two former allies who lay claim to the victory vying to rebuild a nation finally without war.

More than 14 million people are registered to vote, against a backdrop of heavy security and tension, with fears that election day will be as bloody as a campaign in which five people were killed and more than 800 violent incidents were recorded.

Before polls opened, loud blasts were heard in the northern city of Jaffna, the centre of Sri Lanka's minority Tamil culture that has been under military guard since 1995. No one was wounded and it was not immediately clear what caused them.

"We heard four loud explosions," Sunil Jayasekara, an election monitor for the independent Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, told Reuters by telephone.

More than 68,000 police and a quarter-million election officials have spread out across the Indian Ocean island, which for the first time in nearly three decades votes without the fear of suicide blasts or attacks by the Tamil Tiger separatists.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and General Sarath Fonseka are the surprising rivals in a contest in which the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May has figured heavily in campaigning, with both claiming credit.

"Today's victory will be remarkable. It's been evident with voters across the nation participating towards our victory," Rajapaksa said after voting in Medamulana, his rural district on the southern coast. "We expect a peaceful election and are getting ready to enjoy a better tomorrow."    

High cost of living

Rajapaksa and Fonseka have both pledged to dole out costly subsidies and public sector pay rises, which economists say will make it hard for Sri Lanka to meet its cost-cutting obligations under a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

The two men have accused each other of corruption, with the general saying Rajapaksa has used his office to enrich his family while the cost of essential food items has risen sharply for ordinary citizens. Both deny wrongdoing.

In turn, the president says Fonseka helped his son-in-law gain lucrative army contracts, and points to the fact his government brought inflation to a record low in 2009 after high oil and food prices shot it to a high of 28.2 per cent in 2008.

Whoever wins will take the reins of a $40 billion economy still waiting to taste the real fruits of peace, despite large Indian and Chinese investments into infrastructure and a stock market that returned 125 per cent last year on post-war optimism.

"What I expect in the future is that in the same way peace was established, the cost of living will be brought down and the unemployment problem will be solved, 51-year-old security guard Jayantha Perera told Reuters TV before casting his vote.

Both candidates have urged their supporters to remain calm, and pledged to respect the electoral process. Fonseka has alleged Rajapaksa is planning to use the military to stay in power should he lose, which the government denies.

Rajapaksa as commander-in-chief and Fonseka as the army commander stood side-by-side after the victory in May, but within months split over what the general said was his sidelining by the president and unfounded accusations he was plotting a coup.

A motley coalition of opposition parties with divergent ideologies have joined to support Fonseka with the sole aim of beating the incumbent, who called the vote two years early hoping to capitalize on his seemingly unbeatable post-war popularity.

There are no reliable opinion polls, but the consensus is that Fonseka and Rajapaksa are running a close race, while the 20 other candidates are not expected to get many votes.

Since the main contenders are expected to split the Sinhalese ethnic majority's vote bloc, about 75 percent of the nation's 21 million people, the remaining minority vote becomes crucial.

Tamils make up about 12 per cent and for the first time in decades will be able to vote without the LTTE dictating their choice. Muslims and so-called Estate Tamils, brought from India to work on tea plantations under British colonial rule, will also figure in the minority vote bloc. – Reuters