UPFA, UNP to launch election campaign Thursday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 February 2004, 14:48 GMT]
Two major Sinhala political parties, United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge and United National Party (UNP) led by Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe are to launch their election campaign with rallies scheduled to be held in Anuradhapura in the north central province and Kandy in central province on February 26 Thursday, political sources said.

Ms.Kumaratunge, leader of the UPFA (alliance of Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) is to preside the Anuradhapura election rally and Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe is to lead Kandy rally, sources said.

Twenty-eight registered political parties and 192 independent groups have fielded about 5698 candidates vying for 196 parliamentary seats at the forthcoming general election, which has been fixed for 2nd April.

Meanwhile, the UNP and UPFA released their national lists. Under the proportionate representation system political parties and independent groups can nominate twenty nine members to the national list to parliament, based on the ratio of votes polled on island basis, sources said.

The UNP national list follows:

K.N.Choksy, Tilak Marapone, G.L.Peiris, Tyrone Fernando, Navin Dissanayake, M.Aswer, Ronnie de Mel, M.Musthapa, Ali Zahir Mowlana, Dr.Ranjit Attapattu, S.Yasanayake, Kesara Senanayake, Ms Rankanayaki Pathmanathan, Raja John Pillai, M.A.Hassan Ali, Ajith Cabral, Srinal de Mel, Ms Indrani Iriyagolla, Hussain Ahamed, Ismail Mohamed, Ms Fathima Fahima, S.A.S.Balfadur Nizar, W.D.S.Pushpakumara, M.S.Sellasamy, V.Puthirasikamany, V.Radhakrishnan, P.Radhakrishnan and P.Parameshwaran.

The UPFA national list follows:

Lakshman Kadirgamar, Prof A.V.Suraweera, Prof.Visva Warnapala, Richard Pathirana, Oye Gunasekara, Cegu Issadeen, Anwar Ismail, Prof Tissa Vitharana, Rupasingha Gunawardene, M.M.Zuhair, R Chandrasekara, J.Mary Lucida, Ajantha de Soyza, Suppiah Pathmalochana, M.V.A.Aziz, S.Subaideen, C.Koswatte, Warna Deepthi Rajapakse, P.Kumarasinghe Liyanage, M.M.Wasantha Samarasinghe, Leel Gunasekara, Dr.M.I.M.Mooshin, V.Thangarajah, G.S.B.Rani Perera, Cyril Wickremage, R.A.D.D.Weerasekara, P.Jayampathi, Janadasa Peiris, Keerthi Sumanasiri.

Batty Weerakoon, leader of Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and former Justice Minister and Minister of Technology in the PA government, is not included in the list. LSSP recently agreed to join the SLFP-JVP alliance.