JVP to contest alone in local council elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 February 2006, 15:56 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the Sinhala Marxist party officially announced Tuesday that it has decided to contest alone in the forthcoming local authorities elections under its symbol 'Bell". The decision to contest alone was taken after the failure of the talks held between the JVP and the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in the allocation of candidates under an election alliance, a JVP official said at a press briefing held Tuesday, sources said.

Mr.Tilvin Silva, General Secretary of the JVP said although the JVP is to contest alone in the local council election, the Memorandum of Understanding between the SLFP and JVP signed for the last presidential poll would be in force without a change, sources said.

The UPFA was against the JVP demand that allocation of candidates to each local authority should be done such a way for the JVP to capture administration in about eighteen urban council and few municipal councils and several other pradesiya sabahs. Hence the talks on forming an alliance in the forthcoming local council election collapsed as the grass root level members of the the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) main constituent of the UPFA opposed it, sources said.