Sri Lanka Elections: News Brief

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2004, 12:06 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) plans to submit nomination papers in the districts of NorthEast at the same time Monday noon, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress is to compete in Jaffna alone, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission is exploring ways to help people in LTTE controlled areas to exercise their right to vote, EPDP and EPRLF (Varather faction) to contest jointly in Jaffna, and in Nuwara Eliya district Hill country Tamils to fight the elections in four fronts, popular Jaffna dailies Uthayan and Veerakesari reported in their Sunday Edition.

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TNA to submit nomination papers Monday

Leadership of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has decided to submit nomination papers for Jaffna, Vanni, Batticaloa, Amparai and Trincomalee districts at the same time around noon Monday.

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SLMC to contest Jaffna

Spokesperson of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Dr.Habeez told local media that in Jaffna district SLMC will compete alone under the leadership of Moulavi B.A.S.Subian.

Dr.Habeez added that his party is exploring ways to jointly compete elections with other parties in the districts of Vanni and Amparai.

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SLMM explores ways to help election process

Reports said that although the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) is not directly participating in monitoring the forthcoming elections, SLMM is exploring ways of assisting in free movement of people to the polling places and facilitating residents of NorthEast execise their right to vote.

An SLMM official said that his organization is considering actinb under the provisions of the MoU where SLMM is tasked to ensure free movement of people.

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EPDP and EPRLF (Varather) contest jointly in Jaffna

Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) and Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF)- Varathar Faction, are to compete jointly in Jaffna district under the leadership of EPDP Secretary General Douglas Devananda according to EPDP's Jaffna district organizer K.Kugendran.

Former parliamentarians S.Sivathasan, V.K.Kugendran, S.Baskaran, S.Thavarajah, Nishanthan, Maheswary Velautham, Sinna Bala, and Seevaratnam from EPDP and S.Sritharan from EPRLF (Varathar faction) are competing in this alliance ticket, according to EPDP spokesperson.

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Tamils fight Nuwara Eliya on four fronts

More than 25 Tamil contestants are expected to participate for seats in the Nuwara Eliya district under four different parties according to media reports.

Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) which is competing in the elections jointly with United National Front (UNF) coalition of Ranil Wickremesinghe. On behalf of CWC, former Minister and the leader of CWC, Arumugam Thondaman, Deputy Minister Muthu Sivalingam and former parliamentarian Jegatheeswaran are standing for the elections. Deputy leader of Ambegamuwa Pradeshya Sabha, Murugaiah Raveendran is competing under the UNF ticket.

Former parliamentarian (JVP) Ramalingam Chandrasekar has filed nominations under the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). On behalf of JVP two other Tamils and a muslim contestants are fighting the elections according to reports.

Upcountry People's Front has decided during a meeting of its leaders in Thalawakolai to compete in the elections alone in Nuwara Eliya under its 'mammoty' symbol and to compete in Colombo, Ratnapura, Kegalle districts jointly with UNF.

Former Minister Chandrasekaran, UPF's Secretary General M.Sivalingam, S.Arulsamy, S.Rajakulendran, D.Aiyathurai, S.Vijayakumar, A.Lawrence and other Pradeshya Members are competing under UPF. A. Aravindakumar is standing for elections in Badulla district under UPF ticket.

Democratic SriLanka United Front, the political arm of Sri Lanka Workers United Front is competing alone in Nuwara Eliya district and jointly with UPFA in Ratnapura and Kegalle districts. Secretary General S.Sathasivam, Kanapathi Kanagaraj, Chelliah Sivasundaram, S.Mathavan, S.Rajaratnam, S.Malarvannan and some Pradeshya Sabha members are competing under this party's ticket.

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