An alert was sounded in eastern Batticaloa district following the overnight shooting of the region's top civil administrator, Ratnam Manoguruswamy, military officials said.

The victim is also the top official responsible for conducting Friday's vote in the region.

In a separate incident, Tamil candidate T. Maheswaran was shot and wounded in the capital Colombo Saturday as he left a Hindu temple, police said.

Doctors said he was recovering in a private hospital here. Maheswaran is running for parliament as a candidate from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).

He was also minister for Hindu religious affairs before he was sacked by President Chandrika Kumaratunga last month after she dissolved parliament and called elections four years ahead of schedule.

Kumaratunga called early polls to head off a power struggle with the prime minister, whom she accused of conceding too much to Tamil rebels in efforts to end three decades of ethnic bloodshed.

A UNP candidate was shot dead March 1 by Tamil Tiger rebels in Batticaloa town, and a few days later the guerrilla movement split.

Earlier this week, a university lecturer in Batticaloa was shot and wounded by suspected Tiger guerrillas.

That shooting was linked by the police to the ongoing rift within the Tiger movement between renegade regional commander V. Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, and the group's main leadership in the island's north.

On Friday, the Tigers warned they were preparing "to get rid" of Karuna and asked Tamils not to support him.

Independent poll monitors last week expressed fears of an escalation in violence in the final week of campaigning.

The private People's Action for Free and fair Elections (PAFFREL) and the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said their observations indicated a lower level of violence compared to the previous election campaign, but they expected more trouble in the coming week.

"Our experience is that there could be a spurt of violence in the final week of campaigning," a PAFFREL spokesman said.

Police said the level of violence in the campaign this time was far lower than that recorded in the December 2001 parliamentary election.

"There is better enforcement of election laws by the police and that in turn has ensured fewer cases of criminal activity," police chief Indra de Silva said last week.