2ND LEAD

Armed men abduct paramilitary UPFA candidate in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 January 2008, 08:05 GMT]
A man appointed by the TMVP paramilitary group to contest in Batticaloa Municipal Council Elections under the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) ticket was abducted by unidentified armed men, around 10 p.m., Friday, Kaaththaankudi police said.

Sangarathas Sivananthathas of the TMVP group was abducted from his house located on Sando Sankarathas Road by armed men who came in a white van.

Sri Lankan Department of Elections annouced Friday that elections for the nine local government authorities in the Batticaloa District will be held on 10 March. The nominations for elections were closed Friday noon.

Karuna group is contesting under the ruling UPFA alliance in the Batticaloa Municipal Council and independently in other 8 local government authorities in the Batticaloa District.

Sri Lankas main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP) and the main Tamil minority party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) are not contesting the elections stating that security situation was not conducive to holding of a free and fair poll.

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