Tamil parties urged to unite

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2001, 20:00 GMT]
Prominent Tamil citizens and organizations in the eastern province have already started sending memorandums to the Tamil political parties to form an alliance to contest the forthcoming general election scheduled on December 5, and to thereby prevent the split of Tamil vote.

Mr.S.Sriskandarajah, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) branch secretary in Trincomalee said he has told his party leaders of the urgent need of forming an alliance of all Tamil political parties this time to safeguard Tamil parliamentary representation for the area.

"Tamils in Trincomalee lost their parliamentary representation at the last general election for the first time since independence because of the split of votes," he said.

Four independent groups and three political parties contested Trincomalee district last year's general election to represent Tamils in parliament. Though over thirty thousand Tamils voted for these groups and parties, they could not capture a seat due to split of votes among them.

A leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front said that the party's executive committee would meet shortly to decide on the course of action to be taken in this regard. The appeal to form an alliance with other Tamil political parties would be favourably considered, he said.

Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) sources also said that the party was in favour in formation of an alliance of all Tamil political parties to contest the forthcoming general election. "The parliamentary strength of Tamils should be safeguarded at any cost," a TELO source said.