Trincomalee UNP Tamil contestant withdraws candidacy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 March 2004, 14:06 GMT]
Mr. Nagarajah Sambasivamoorthy, one of the seven candidates put forward by the ruling United National Party to contest the forthcoming general election in the Trincomalee electoral district, said Thursday that he has withdrawn from the contest, political sources in Trincomalee said.

In a letter he sent to the media Thursday cited his illness as the reason for the withdrawal.

All the other six candidates in the UNP list are Sinhalese. No Muslim candidates are included in the UNP list of candidates following an agreement reached between the leaderships of the UNP and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC). The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Muslim took this step to ensure more Muslim representation in the new parliament, sources said.

In the last general election held in the year 2001, two Tamil candidates who contested in the UNP list jointly polled 2536 preferential votes.

Mr.M.A.M.Maharoof, former Trincomalee district UNP parliamentarian who contested as the lead candidate in December 2001 general election is contesting on the SLMC ticket as its lead candidate in the forthcoming general election which has been fixed for April 02nd.

Another Tamil Mr. Kandiah Kirupairajah is contesting in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in the Trincomalee district.

Two Muslims have been included in the UPFA list of candidates.

The UPFA is the new political alliance formed by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Marxist- sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).