Tamil parties fail to reach agreement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The TULF, TELO, EPRLF, PLOTE and the EPDP which met this morning from 11 a.m. to reach a final decision on boycotting the Jaffna local government elections dispersed around 1.15 p.m. in the afternoon after failing to work out an understanding on anything.

Each party will file nominations and contest the local government polls on its own.

The participants in today's meeting say that each party will explain to the people as to why it did not favour the common boycott proposal.

Sources said that the EPDP and the PLOTE were not enthusiastic about the proposal from the beginning. The two groups, among other things, do not wish to be seen by the government as the principal culprits behind a common boycott, say sources in Jaffna who are close to these groups.

Sudha Master, the general secretary of the EROS which pulled out of the fray four days ago, upon hearing the failure of the Jaffna talks this afternoon told Tamil Net "They have dug the first grave in the path of their political self- destruction."