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STORY: Tamils in Sri Lanka have little hope that Saturday's (September 21) presidential election will improve their lot.

This is Jaffna, capital of the Northern Province, one of the areas where insurgents from the ethnic minority once fought for a Tamil nation during Sri Lanka's civil war.

Tamils form 12% of the country's 22 million population but have long been electorally sidelined.

They've traditionally voted for Tamil parties active in the north, but fisherman Paramasamy Thanabalasingam says this time their vote is split among many factions which claim to represent their concerns.

"Anyhow, the new president will be chosen from the three main candidates and the decision will be made by the majority Sinhala people. There won’t be any change for us."

Saturday's is the first presidential election since the island nation plunged into its worst financial crisis in decades in 2022.

Economic recovery is at the core of a close three-way battle between President Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and Marxist-leaning politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

The fisherman says he and his family were displaced during the civil war, and the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with Sri Lanka's meltdown mean they've lurched from crisis to crisis.

"Now I'm thinking about the future with no idea," he says.

The 26-year civil war between Tamil insurgents and government forces ended in 2009.

Rights groups accuse both sides of abuses during the conflict in which 40,000 people died, according to U.N. estimates.