Sri Lanka Elections: News in Brief

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 March 2004, 01:14 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a party fielding Buddhist monks in parliamentary elections, begins its campaign in Kandy, candidates withdraw nominations in Digamadulla and Batticaloa, and a Tamil candidate dies of heart-attack in Nuwara Eliya, media reports said.

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JHU begins election campaign in Kandy

Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) started its election campaign in front of the Kandy Central Market Tuesday. Before the meeting several Budddhist monks and hundreds of JHU supporters offered prayers at Dalda Maligawa.

Monks and JHU supporters came in a procession from the Temple to the venue of the meeting.

Security around the Market place and surrounding areas was tightened with a deployment of several Sri Lanka police officers, according to reports.

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Two UNF candidates withdraw nominations in Batticaloa

Two candidates who filed nomination papers as candidates for the United National Front, Amarasingam Vinayagamoorthy from Mandoor and K.Poobalaratnam from Valaichchenai in Batticaloa district, have written to the Election commissioner that they are withdrawing their nominations for the forth coming general elections, media reports said.

Election officials said that the candidates names will still be in the ballot paper.

Sinnathamby Sundarampillai (63), a UNF candidate, and Ponnaiah Yogendran (25), EPDP activist from Valaichenai, were gunned down by unknown assailants in the last two days.

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Independence Group-15 withdraws nominations in Digamadulla

Lead candidate for the independent group 15, M.M.Kaleel, said that his group is withdrawing nominations from the Digamadulla elections and the candidates have resolved to support the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), media reports said.

"Our decision will strengthen the Muslim community to face future challenges. We are also keen to ensure that the three seats that Muslim community won in the last elections are again won by Muslim people," Mr.Kaleel said.

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Nuwara Eliya candidate dies of heart-attack

Nuwara Eliya district candidate, S.Ranganathan, who was standing as a candidate representing United SriLanka Democratic Front, the political arm of Sri Lanka Workers United Front, died of a heart attack Monday evening according to reports.

Mr.Ranganathan who was 70 years old was a former vice president of Ceylon Workers United Front and a former president of Ambegamuwa Pradeshya Sabha.

In 1988, he was a member of the Western Province Municipal Council, according to media reports.