COLOMBO, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government on Monday denied a claim by the main minority Muslim party leader of a government plan to postpone the May 10 election for the Eastern Province.

    "There is absolutely no plan to postpone the election," Keheliya Rambukwella, the government's defense spokesman and the Minister of Foreign Employment told reporters.

    Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC)had accused the government of contemplating postponement of the poll claiming security issue as an excuse if the situation became unfavorable to it.

    Rambukwella stressed that the government was determined to give the eastern people the political freedom of appointing their own leaders after its success of liberating the east from the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

    The eastern provincial council election would be the first such provincial election in the province since 1988.

    The government earlier this month held local council elections in the eastern Batticaloa district, one of the three districts in the Eastern Province.