EPDP undemocratic - EPRLF, DPLF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A war of statements and counter-statements erupted in the Uthayan, the only newspaper published in Jaffna, when the Democratic Peoples Liberation Front (DPLF) and the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) came out strongly against the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) for blocking other Tamil groups from campaigning for the forthcoming local government elections in the islands off the Jaffna peninsula.

The statements of these two parties, published in the Uthayan this week, criticised the EPDP's own statement on the issue.

The DPLF statement said that EPDP cadres, clad in military uniform and carrying arms, were pursuing their partisan interests in guise of providing security in the islands.

The DPLF statement accused the EPDP's position that its action was in retaliation to the hostility of the other parties, as a travesty of the truth.

It stated further the EPDP is the only party functioning in the Neduntheevu island (Delft) although an election has to be held there shortly. The security forces are not stationed in the area.

The statement accused the Commissioner of Elections of reneging on an undertaking given to political parties fighting elections in Neduntheevu, that all candidates would be given security and transport.

The DPLF said that it believed the EPDP was working with the hope that the local government election would be a farce like the elections for Parliament in 1994.

Meanwhile, the EPRLF said that that an election candidate from the party had been accosted by a drunken candidate and his comrades from 'another Tamil party', in Velanai, in Kayts on January 1.

The EPRLF statement protested that this was conduct unbecoming of a democratic party and reiterated the right for members of all parties to canvass in any place where elections are held. The incident, it said, contravened that right.

The EPDP has been controlling the islands along with SLA since 1991 after the SLA captured the islands in 1990.

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