Major political parties to hold final election rallies Tuesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 March 2004, 21:28 GMT]
The final election rallies of major political parties are to be held Tuesday evening in various parts of the country bringing the one and a half months old bitter election campaign to an end two days before the April 2nd poll, political sources said.

The United National Party election campaign will come to an end Tuesday with a rally, which is scheduled to be held in Maradana. The Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe will address UNP rallies Tuesday in Matara at 2 p.m., Galle at 3 p.m., Kalutara at 4 p.m. and Moratuwa at 5 p.m. prior to his arrival at Maradana at 7 p.m., UNP’s Sri Kotha headquarters sources said.

Mr.Wickremasinghe Monday addressed election rallies in Kegalle district. According to party sources, Mr.Wickremasinghe has addressed about one hundred election rallies in the last three weeks.

The United Peoples Freedom Alliance will hold its final election rally Tuesday evening at the BRC grounds in Colombo. The leaders of the Sri Lanka Freedom party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, major constituents of the newly formed UPFA, would attend the rally, party sources said.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is to hold its final election rally Tuesday evening in Nallur, Jaffna. All the twelve candidates of the TNA will attend the final rally, which is to be presided over by Mr.K.Kumaravel, a Jaffna university lecturer who is also one of the national list candidates of the TNA. The General Secretary of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers’ Union, Mr.T.Mahasivam, is also billed to address the TNA final rally.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) is to hold its final election rally in Amparai district where its leader, Mr.Rauff Hakeem, is facing a tough contest with Ms. Ferial Ashraff, leader of the National Unity Alliance (NUA) and the wife of the founder of the NUA and SLMC, the late Mr.M.H.M.Ashraff. NUA has been contesting the April general election as a onstituent of the UPFA and the SLMC is contesting alone in the northeast and as a constituent of the UNP in the other parts of the country, political sources said.