Eastern Provincial Council Election scheduled for May 10

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 11:03 GMT]
Election for the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) is to be held 10 May and nominations are to be accepted from 27 March to 3 April, according to a Sri Lanka Government gazette notification published Thursday. This is the first election to take place after NorthEast was demerged on the Supreme Court verdict of 16 October 2006.

United National Party (UNP) organizer S. P. Dissanayake said that his party will contest while being wary of the activities of paramilitary groups functioning in the Eastern Province.

Wimal Weerawanse, the propaganda secretary of Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna (JVP) said that JVP will most probably enter the contest but final decision is yet to be taken.

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) is consulting the other Muslim political parties issues related to EPC election, Deputy Minister Hasan Ali said.

The Muslim parties are cautious about Mulsim votes being split in the Eastern Province which is an important habitat for the Muslims in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF- Varatharaja Perumal wing), Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) of V. Ananthasangaree, and T. Sritharan’s People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) political parties have expressed their intention to participate in the EPC election.