the LTTE. Anandasangaree refused to allow the TNA to use the TULF name during the 2004 parliamentary election. This caused the members of TULF who wished to remain with the TNA to resurrect the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) political party. At the 2004 parliamentary election the TNA, contesting under the name and symbol of the ITAK, received 633,654 votes (6.84%) and won 22 out of 225 seats in parliament. The TNA boycotted the 2008 local authority election in Batticaloa District and the 2008 Eastern Provincial Council election due to threats posed by the government backed Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) paramilitary group and opposition to the de-merger of the North Eastern Province. The civil war ended in May 2009 after the LTTE were defeated by the Sri Lankan military. A United Nations report found that as many as 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war, mostly as a result of indiscriminate shelling by the Sri Lankan military. There are widespread allegations that both sides committed atrocities and human rights violations including war crimes. The TNA has consistently campaigned for an independent international investigation into the alleged war crimes. At the 2010 presidential election, the TNA supported common opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka who, as Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, had played a key role in the LTTE's defeat. In March 2010 the TNA dropped its demand for a separate Tamil state, advocating instead a federal solution with significant devolution and merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces. In March 2010 ACTC and its leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, along with fellow TNA MPs S. Kajendran and Pathmini Sithamparanathan, left the TNA and formed the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF). At the 2010 parliamentary election the TNA received 233,190 votes (2.90%) and won 14 out of 225 seats in parliament. At the 2013 provincial council election, the first elections for provincial councils in the Northern Province, the TNA secured nearly 80% of the votes, winning 30 of the 38 seats on the Northern Provincial Council. The TNA's C. V. Vigneswaran was sworn in as the first democratically elected Chief Minister of the Northern Province on 7 October 2013. At the 2015 presidential election, the TNA supported common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena. Newly elected president Sirisena formed a national unity government after the election but the TNA chose not to join the new government, saying that,