Legal wrangle forces TNA to choose "HOUSE" as election symbol

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2004, 15:30 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has made alternate arrangements to hand over nomination papers on the Federal Party ticket with election symbol "HOUSE" if the court order against the Secretary General and Senior Vice President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in a law suit filed by the party president Mr.V. Anandasangaree continued beyond Thursday, TNA sources said.


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Mano Ganeshan meets with Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2004, 14:18 GMT]
Western Province People's Front (WPPF) leader, Mano Ganeshan, met with Head of LTTE's Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan, in Kilinochchi Wednesday morning sources in Kilinochchi said. "The critical importance of the forthcoming elections lies in the fact the Tamil Nation will use this democratic medium to unequivocally express its aspirations," Mr.Ganeshan told the reporters after his meeting.
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TNA leaders meet to finalize election strategy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2004, 20:22 GMT]
The central working committee of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and the nomination board of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) are planning to meet Wednesday (February 18) morning at the headquarters of the TULF in Colombo, party sources said.


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TULF leaders' appeal in Sangaree case to be heard Thursday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2004, 20:19 GMT]
The appeal filed by the Secretary General and Senior Vice President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Mr.R.Sampanthan and Mr.Jospeh Pararajasingham respectively against the interim injunction issued by the Colombo District Court in favour of the TULF President Mr. V.Anandasangaree is listed for inquiry in the Court of Appeal (CA) on Thursday, legal sources said.


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Court to hear SLMC rival faction's appeal on holding Key posts

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2004, 15:39 GMT]
The appeal filed by the rival faction of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) on the interim injunction order issued by the Colombo District Court last year restraining it from claiming the key posts of the party was fixed for hearing on May 24, legal sources said.
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TNA leaders to meet LTTE leadership in Killinochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 February 2004, 18:12 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader Mr.R.Sampanthan said Monday that vital decisions would be taken in consultations with the leadership of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Tuesday in Killinochchi regarding the forthcoming parliamentary general elections.
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TULF leaders appeal over leadership challenge

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 February 2004, 16:10 GMT]
Tamil United Liberation Front's Secretary General Mr.R.Sampanthan and Senior Vice President Mr.Jospeh Pararajasingham Monday filed a petition in the Court of Appeal, seeking to vacate the interim injunction order issued on them by the Colombo District Judge on an action instituted by the TULF President, Mr. V.Anandasangaree, stating that it was illegal and contrary to the law, legal sources said.
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LSSP, CP agree to join SLFP-JVP alliance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 17:13 GMT]
Half a century old leftist political parties, Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and Communist Party (CP) agreed to join the recently formed United Peoples' Freedom Alliance. Leaders of LSSP and CP are to sign the Memorandum of Understanding in this regard with the leaders UPFA on Tuesday, sources said.


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Maheswaran says won’t contest April polls

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 17:11 GMT]
Mr. T. Maheswaran, who was Minister for Hindu Affairs in Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Front (UNF) government, said Sunday he does not intend to contest elections to the Sri Lankan Parliament in April. Mr. Maheswran was the only Tamil from the UNF to be elected from the island’s northern parts in the Parliamentary polls in December 2001. Speaking at the opening of the renovated Karainagar Multi Purpose Co-operative Society Sunday morning, the ex minister said that he plans to retire from politics.
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TNA to meet again to decide on election symbol

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 15:36 GMT]
The leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will meet again on February 18th to take a final decision regarding the election symbol to contest the forthcoming parliamentary general election, which is to be held on April 2, party sources said. TNA leaders took the decision to this effect at a discussion held Sunday evening at the headquarters of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), main constituent of the TNA.


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Sihala Urumaya to field Buddhist monks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 14:41 GMT]
The Sinhala nationalist Sihala Urumaya (SU) has decided to contest all the electoral districts in the island in the forthcoming parliamentary general election including northeast province and majority of SU candidates would be selected from the Buddhist clergy, said its Propaganda Secretary Mr.Champika Ranawake.


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SLMM new head to visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 12:48 GMT]
The Norwegian head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Major General (retd) Trond Furuhovde is scheduled to visit Jaffna district Monday. This would be his first visit to Jaffna following his assumption of duties as SLMM head on February 1st for the second time after replacing Major General Triggve Teleffsen, sources said
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Sri Lanka Elections: News Brief

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 11:51 GMT]
Key members of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) are likely to join the United National Front, Sri Lanka's Police force's leaves have been suspended, Thamilchelvan returns to Vanni from European trip and Anandasangaree continues to scuttle Tamil National Alliance efforts to formulate a coherent election strategy, according to local media reports.
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Polling in LTTE areas to be discussed with truce monitors

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 February 2004, 15:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Commissioner of Elections Saturday told Government Agents and Assistant Elections Commissioners from the Northeast that he would discuss with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the Sri Lankan Government’s Peace Secretariat about arrangements to enable more than two hundred thousand Tamils in regions that are not under Colombo’s control to vote in the general elections on 2 April. Sri Lankan armed forces prevented Tamils in these areas from voting in the Parliamentary elections of December 2001.
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SLMC to go solo in contests for 13 districts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 February 2004, 00:45 GMT]
The politburo of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) has decided to contest thirteen districts, including Colombo, Kandy, Gampaha and Amparai, without an alliance with other parties in the forthcoming parliamentary general elections, said SLMC general secretary Mr. Hassanaly, according to a news bulletin carried by the State-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) Friday evening.
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TNA readies to face poll with ‘house’ or 'lighthouse'

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2004, 09:42 GMT]
General secretary of the Federal Party (FP), Mr. Mavai Senathirajah and general secretary of the TELO, Mr. Indrakumar Prasanna, informed Sri Lanka's Commissioner of Elections their party’s intent to contest following uncertainty over the TULF's legal wrangle, a spokesman for the Tamil National Alliance said Wednesday. If the stand off between the TULF's President and executive central committee is not resolved next week the TNA will have to contest either under the TELO's 'lighthouse' symbol or the FP's 'house' symbol, he said.


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Election should focus on future coexistence and cooperation - NPC

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2004, 08:37 GMT]
Noting that Sri Lanka is facing its third general election in less than four years and the country is plunged into an election when it is faced with acute financial difficulties, the National Peace Council (NPC), a Colombo based Sri Lankan peace group, in a media release issued in Colombo today said that it is "disturbed by the early emergence of negative campaigning by political parties that aim at fanning fears and apprehensions of the people regarding the breakdown of the ceasefire, the division of the country and the threat posed by one community to the other."
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Highest ranking USAID official visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2004, 03:19 GMT]
Mr. Mark S.Ward, Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Asia and Near East Bureau, US Agency for International Development (USAID), visited Jaffna Thursday to evaluate the progress of several USAID projects providing development assistance to the people of Jaffna, civil society sources said. Mr. Ward is the highest-ranking USAID official covering South Asia.


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Sri Lanka is in a directionless moment of drift - Prof.Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2004, 02:56 GMT]
Third parliamentary elections in four years indicate that Sri Lanka's "political order is unstable, the polity is acutely fragmented, political forces are divided in hostility and the country is in a directionless moment of drift," writes Professor Uyangoda in the Friday edition of Daily Mirror.


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Cushnahan clarifies discussion with Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2004, 00:01 GMT]
Mr. John Walls Cushnahan, Member of the European Parliament, clarified to TamilNet Wednesday details regarding his discussion with Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, political leader of the Liberation Tigers, when he met him on February 6, 2004. “I said that I fully understood the dangers of their [LTTE’s] supporters becoming disillusioned with the peace process if it was not perceived to be delivering improvements to the quality of life in the North East and in this regard I appreciated the difficulties caused by the current political stalemate [in Colombo],” Mr. Cushnahan said in his clarification.
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