Tamil Parties Alliance reiterates its commitment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 December 2001, 14:49 GMT]
The parliamentary group of the Tamil Parties Alliance (TNA) at its first meeting held Tuesday strongly reiterated that "it has come together and obtained the mandate of the Tamil people in the Northeast to pursue the policies enunciated in its election manifesto, in relation to the resolution of the Tamil national question, which primarily requires the immediate commencement of negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with international third party involvement, and to facilitate the commencement of such negotiations, the lifting of the proscription imposed on the LTTE in Sri Lanka."
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Wickremesinghe appoints cabinet of 25

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 December 2001, 11:57 GMT]
The cabinet of ministers of the United National Front government was sworn in Wednesday afternoon in Colombo. The Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe kept only the Ministry of Policy Planning to himself contrary to the practice of former heads of Sri Lankan governments to hold key several portfolios such as defence. The UNP MP for Jaffna was appointed a Minister for Hindu Affairs sans cabinet rank. The Minister of Defence is former attorney general Mr. Tilak Marapone. The leader of the Ceylon Workers' Congress Mr. Arumugam Thondaman was appointed Housing and Plantation Infrastructure.
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Sampanthan, Sangaree meet Indian HC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 December 2001, 11:39 GMT]
Senior Tamil National Alliance MPs Mr. R. Sampanthan and Mr. V. Anandasangaree Wednesday appealed to India to impress upon the new Sri Lankan government to lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers. “The ban on the Liberation Tigers in Sri Lanka should be revoked first enabling them to participate in peace talks as the sole representative of Tamils and such talks should be held only with the LTTE with the international third party mediation”, a two MPs told the Indian High Commissioner Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi Wednesday morning during a discussion held in Colombo. “The TNAs manifesto been endorsed overwhelmingly by the Tamils of the northeast province at the general election held last week. Hence the new Sri Lankan government should fulfil the demands defined in our manifesto”, the MPs told the envoy. The Indian High Commissioner said he would convey the TNA’s position to his government.
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New parliament convenes on December 17

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 December 2001, 19:42 GMT]
President Chandrika Kumaratunge has decided to convene the 12th parliament on December 17 at 10 a.m., the Presidential Secretariat said in a news release Monday. Earlier, the date of convening the new parliament had been fixed for January 01, 2002. The decision to advance the date of the inaugural session of 12th parliament was taken under article 70 of the Constitution, following representations made by the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, the press release added.
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Sampanthan tells new PM to fulfil TNA demands

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 December 2001, 22:04 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Sunday told the new Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe that it would stick to its demands defined in its election manifesto in evolving a just and durable solution to the Tamil national question.
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“No interest in government formation”- Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 December 2001, 12:40 GMT]
“The Tamil National Alliance said Saturday that it has no interest in the formation of the new government. “We will do nothing to derogate from the verdict of the Sinhalese in the south. But we will not allow ourselves to be manipulated in anyway. Beyond this we have no interest in the formation of the new government”, said Mr. R. Sampanthan, MP for Trincomalee and a senior leader of the Tamil National Alliance. “The elections have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the Tamil people are solidly behind the Liberation Tigers. The results are also an endorsement that the Tamils are a distinct nation and that they have the right to self-determination. The Tamils have endorsed that the Liberation Tigers are their sole representatives, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham TNA MP for Batticaloa said.
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JVP shows massive increase

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 December 2001, 14:10 GMT]
The final results of the elections to Sri Lanka's 12th Parliament showed an upswing in popularity not only for the United National Party but also most remarkably in favour of the radical Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The JVP's popularity has shot up by 296579 votes in the course of a year, mostly at the expense of the People's Alliance. Both the JVP and the PA appealed largely to Sinhala Buddhists during the elections, by persistently attempting to stoke nationalist sentiments among them.
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Two EPDP in Jaffna, one PLOTE in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2001, 18:20 GMT]
The TNA got 102324 votes in Jaffna, 86284 in Batticaloa and 41959 in the Vanni electoral district, election officials said Thursday. It got more than forty four thousand votes in the Ampara (Digamadulla) district, according to votes counted so far. Only two EPDP MPs were elected in Jaffna with 57208 votes. The EPDP, a close ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s regime, was routed in all other districts of the north and east. Mr. Dharmalingam Sitharthan, the leader of the PLOTE, which came third in the Vanni with 9614 votes, was elected the sole MP from the group. The PLOTE too demands the lifting of Colombo’s ban on the Tigers and starting peace talks with them. The TNA lost the fourth seat in the Vanni by about 1200 votes, a spokesman for the Alliance said.
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Sampanthan, Selvam, Mavai among TNA elected

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2001, 16:41 GMT]
Mr. R. Sampanthan the chief candidate of the Tamil National Alliance for Trincomalee scored the highest preference votes among the alliance candidates who contested the general election for Sri Lanka’s 12th Parliament. He got 40110 votes out of the 56,119 the TNA garnered in Trincomalee, elections officials said.
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Results of Jaffna electorates

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2001, 10:21 GMT]
The TNA got more than hundred thousand votes in the eleven electorates of the Jaffna electoral district. The southern sector of the electorate of Chavakachcheri is under the control of the Liberation Tigers. Kilinochchi, an administrative district in north which is an electorate of Jaffna, is under the total control of the Liberation Tigers. Only a few persons displaced from Kilinochchi by the war since 1996 were eligible to vote. The EPDP scored highest in the Kayts electorate, which comprises all the islands under its military influence. The ballots of Jaffna voters displaced in Puttalam and Colombo are yet to be counted.
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Tamils in Trincomalee score high

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2001, 08:57 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance scored 56119 votes in the Trincomalee district. The Tamil United Liberation Front, Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, the main constituents of the TNA, were able to garner only 19110 votes between them at the general elections in October 2000. Polling was very high in the Tamil strongholds of the eastern district Wednesday. There are four seats in Trincomalee. The UNP, SLMC coalition got two seats by scoring 62, 915 votes here. If the UNP and the SLMC had contested separately them the TNA would have got the bonus seat for the district, officials said. The massive surge in support for the TNA in Trincomalee was largely due to the stand it took on the Liberation Tigers and the war. The EPDP was ignominiously routed despite offering jobs and cash to thousands of voters.
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SLA, PA blockade costs Tamil legislators

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2001, 07:20 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance officials said Thursday that they might be losing at least three seats in the Sri Lankan Parliament because more than hundred and forty thousand voters were deliberately prevented from voting by the Sri Lanka army in the Batticaloa and Vanni electoral districts. Election officials in Batticaloa said that if the TNA had got 20097 more votes it would have been eligible for four seats in the district. Similarly, the TNA may get only three seats in the Vanni because of the SLA blockade on voters who came to vote from areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers, officials said.
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TNA wins Jaffna, Vanni, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2001, 02:13 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won in the Jaffna, Vanni and Batticaloa electoral districts, according to results announced until Thursday morning. It came second in the Trincomalee district. Election officials said, according to the votes counted so far TNA would get six seats in Jaffna, four in the Vanni and three in Batticaloa.
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STF stops voters, assaults TNA candidate

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 December 2001, 11:51 GMT]
The Special Task Force, an elite commando unit of the Sri Lankan security forces, lobbed grenades at the Paddiruppu Bridge, one of the main entry points for voters designated by Sri Lanka’s Elections Commissioner in the Batticaloa district, and fire on voters who attempted to come through again Wednesday afternoon around 2.30 p.m. A large number of voters who came to the point were threatened and chased back by the commandos. Mr. Gnanamuttu Krishnapillai (Vellimalai), the TNA candidate for the area was severely assaulted by the STF when he went to inform election officials in the Kaluwanchikudy polling centre. The commandos threatened to kill him, sources said.
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EPDP rigs polls in Jaffna, Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 December 2001, 09:15 GMT]
Police sources in Jaffna said that the Eelam People’s Democratic Party fired on an opposition candidate and lobbed a grenade at his vehicle near Vaddukoddai junction this morning around 9 a.m. They said that the EPDP had also fired on a bus in which voters were travelling near Chankanai and had smashed a Tamil National Alliance van on Stanley Road in the heart of Jaffna town. Meanwhile, an observer with the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), an independent monitoring group, in Jaffna said that the EPDP cadres were seen rigging the polls in the island of Kayts, Velanai and at the polling centres at the Jaffna Hindu College, St. John’s College and the Nelliyadi Maththiya Maha Viththiyalayam. Some voters who went to these centres found their ballots already cast, the PAFFREL source said.
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SLA bars thousands of Tamils from voting in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 December 2001, 05:44 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army barred thousands of Tamil voters in Batticaloa Wednesday from casting their votes. SLA sources in the east claimed that the main entry points from the district's western hinterland were closed on a special directive from President Chandrika Kumaratunga. More than 45,000 voters would not be able to cast their ballot because of the Presidential directive to shut down the entry points, Mr. Pon Selvarasa, ex-MP for Batticaloa and a candidate of the Tamil National Alliance said.
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Sinhala populism said driving PA, UNP agendas

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 16:53 GMT]
The persistent propaganda by President Chandrika Kumaratunga and senior ministers of her People's Alliance government that the opposition United National Party is conspiring with Liberation Tigers to undermine the Sinhala nation and the opposition's efforts to deny the charge are inexorably transforming the question of ending the war into a taboo, a spokesman for the Tamil National Alliance said Tuesday.
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Polling agents, coffins sent to EPDP stranglehold

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 14:26 GMT]
An opposition party candidate in the north said Tuesday that he would defy the stranglehold of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), a key coalition partner of Sri Lanka’s ruling People’s Alliance regime, on the island of Neduntheevu (Delft) off the Jaffna peninsula by sending six polling agents along with six coffins and a doctor to thwart en bloc rigging there. Neduntheevu is held by the EPDP under the aegis of the Sri Lanka security forces. The EPDP attacked the TNA in the island of Kayts November with assault rifles and swords on 28 killing two and wounding four candidates.
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Rigging feared in 'clustered' polling centres

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 13:24 GMT]
Journalists, civil society leaders and politicians in the north and eastern regions of Sri Lanka island told independent and European Union polls observers to pay special attention to 'clustered' polling booths where thousands of Tamil voters in areas held by the Liberation Tigers will have to cast their ballots Wednesday.
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EPDP on rampage in southeastern village

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 December 2001, 08:31 GMT]
Two Tamil National Alliance campaign offices were set on fire and three TNA supporters' houses were damaged by a group of heavily armed cadres of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a major coalition partner of Sri Lanka's ruling People's Alliance regime, in Komari, about 96 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Sunday night, Police sources in Ampara said.
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