TNPF boycotts local elections protesting militarisation of electoral politics
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 January 2011, 23:09 GMT]
Abductions, killings, militarisation of civil affairs and the Sri Lankan state involving its military arm into the electoral politics, have rendered democratic participation in local elections in the Tamil homeland meaningless, said Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) in a statement issued Wednesday announcing that the front had decided to avoid participation in the local elections.
The TNPF statement condemned forced enlistment of Tamil businessmen and community representatives as candidates in the ruling party against their will. The front, led by former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Gejendrakumar Ponnambalam, S. Kajendren, Pathmini Sithamparanathan and a popular economic Economics teacher Sinnathurai Varatharajan, reiterated that it was committed to finding a negotiated political settlement to the Tamil national question on the basis of "two nations in one country".
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