Pillaiyan group threatens Tamil voters in Polonnaruwa - CaFFE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 August 2008, 10:45 GMT]
Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CaFFE), a monitoring organization said Sunday that it has received several complaints alleging that Tamil Paramilitary group Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP ) has been engaged in preventing opposition parties, United National Party (UNP) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) from holding election meetings in Tamil villages in the south of Polonnaruwa electorate and also intimidating Tamil voters not to vote for such parties in the forthcoming elections to the North Central Provincial Council (NCPC) that is scheduled to be held on August 23.

Mangalam Master of the TMVP is contesting the NCPC election as a candidate in the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) ticket.

CaFFE media spokesman Keerthi Tennekone told media that the movement of Tamil armed groups in villages where Tamil speaking people live in majority has increased in recent days.

His organization has received 151 complaints related to election offences from July 1 till Saturday August 16. 105 of them have been election related violence, 37 alleging misuse of state properties and 9 violating election laws.