Sri Lankans are voting in local elections across the country, including in the island nation's former war zone.

Saturday's vote will decide 65 local councils. At least 20 of the councils are in areas once controlled by former Tamil Tiger rebels, who fought a 25-year civil war that ended in May 2009.

Nationals elections were held after the war ended but these are the first local polls to be held since the fighting stopped.

At least 80,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed during the civil war.