Voting high in Mannaar where UNP competes with TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2015, 08:00 GMT]
Voting percentage is reported to be around 30% at 10:00 a.m. in the Eastern Province and around 22% in the Jaffna electorate in the Northern province. The people in Mannaar in Vanni electorate have been taking part in the elections with enthusiasm, especially in the Mannaar island where more than 50% of the people have cast their votes before 12:00 a.m. Large sums of money were distributed among the voters by the UNP in Mannaar Sunday night, news sources in Mannaar said.

Electricity supply was cut off intermittently when the squads belonging to SL minister went on a house-to-house campaign distributing money among the villagers in Mannaar Sunday night.

SL Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiyutheen, who collaborated with former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa and who crossed over to Sirisena, Wickramasinghe alliance before the presidential elections in January this year, is the chief candidate of the UNP in the Vanni electoral district.

Mr Bathiyutheen is alleged of running squads that have caused communal tensions between the various religious sections of the Tamil speaking people in Mannaar. The SL Minister was severely censured for his comparison of the Bishop of Mannaar with extremist Buddhist monks in the South. He is also alleged of protecting the culprits involved in the assassination of Tamil social activist Nakuleswaran.

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