Independent Tamil committee appointed by TPC backs Tamil candidate in principle

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 November 2019, 23:37 GMT]
The ideal option available to the Tamil people was to cast their votes for a Tamil candidate, who is acceptable to most of the Tamil parties, said the independent committee appointed by the Tamil Peoples’ Council in a written statement issued in Tamil on Monday. The committee was not pointing at anyone by name since it had failed to field a common candidate acceptable to most of the Tamil parties. However, it was indirectly pointing at Mr Shivajilingam, who has the backing of at least two of the Tamil parties and alliances.

The Tamil people should wisely cast their preferential votes, the group said.



The Tamil parties are divided in their opinion. There were four different positions adopted by the parties: Common candidate (second preferential vote to a candidate accepting most of the demands of the Tamil people), boycott, unconditional support to Sajith Premadasa and let the Tamil voters decide according to their consciousness.

The TNPF wants a boycott of the SL Presidential election. The ITAK, PLOTE and the hierarchy of the TELO want Tamils to cast their first vote to Sajith Premadasa. The remaining were prepared to back a common candidate but said the undertaken process had commenced very late.

Furthermore, the actors who claim to represent the aspirations of the Tamil people must be prepared to negotiate with both the internal and external powers that seek to influence the outcome of the elections in the island, the group further said.

The committee believed that it was not possible to unite the Tamil political parties as long as the parties are not united in their policies and outlook.

However, Tamil people could back the Tamil candidate with most backing among the parties.

Out of the eight parties, Ananthy Sasitharan’s party was fully backing Mr Shivajilingam. TELO is divided in opinion.

The independent group had met with the ITAK, TNPF, TMK, EPRLF, TELO, PLOTE, TNGO (led by P. Aingaranesan) and ETSK (led by Ananthy Sasitharan) during the process to determine the approach of Eezham Tamils regarding the SL presidential election.

The group was also seeking an increased role of the civil society to strengthen democratic decision making in Tamil politics.

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