Sri Lanka's key Tamil political party to decide its choice for presidential election on September 15: Reports

COLOMBO: Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), Sri Lanka's main Tamil political party having the largest number of MPs under the umbrella group of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), will announce the final decision on its candidate choice for the upcoming presidential election on September 15, local media reported Wednesday.

ITAK leader and Member of Parliament, Mavai Senathirajah stated that his party is currently engaged in discussions on the issue and will announce its decision on Sunday.

Sri Lanka is currently gearing up for the crucial Presidential Election slated for September 21.

It is to be recalled that ITAK had initially decided on September 1 to support Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa. TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran had revealed that the decision was taken following a meeting of the party's Central Committee.

"However, the representatives of ITAK's Kilinochchi branch had called a special meeting last Monday and reversed their decision to support Sajith Premadasa. They have now unanimously decided to support the Tamil common candidate, P. Ariyanenthiran," stated Lankan media outlet Ada Derana.

On September 7, during a tour of the region, President Ranil Wickremesinghe had held a meeting with ITAK leader Senathirajah at his residence in Jaffna's Kankesanthurai.

"Additionally, a special committee meeting of ITAK chaired by Mavai Senathirajah was held in Vavuniya on September 10. Accordingly, it was decided that the final decision as to which presidential candidate the party will support in the presidential election will be announced on September 15," Mavai Senathirajah was quoted as saying by Ada Derana.

Sri Lanka's Tamil political parties had earlier decided to field a common candidate to represent minority Tamils in the Presidential election this time.

Late Kumar Ponnambalam, a leader of All Ceylon Tamil Congress, was the last Tamil Presidential candidate who contested in the 1982 Presidential race. He was assassinated in Colombo in 2020.

The group of Tamil political parties, including Tamil People's Alliance led by former Northern chief Minister C. V. Vigneswaran, Selvam Adaikkalanathan's Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), D. Siddharthan's People's Liberation Organisation Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Srikantha's Tamil National Party and Suresh Premachandran's Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), together with the leaders of a civil society groups including Tamil People’s Congress Association (TPCA) had come to a consensus to nominate a common candidate to represent the minority Tamils in the island nation.

However, ITAK decided not to join the pact signed on July 22 and instead back a jointly supported candidate.

A total of 39 candidates will be contesting the September 21 presidential election in Sri Lanka, the first after the island nation's worst-ever economic crisis.

Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Marxist leader Anura Dissanayake are considered as the front-runners to the election.

Out of the total population of around 22 million, 17.1 Lankans are eligible to vote in the upcoming election. This includes 1.2 million new voters.

In the 2019 election, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the younger brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was elected as the President after recording a landslide victory.

However, a severe economic crisis after the Covid pandemic and several shortsighted decisions led to a major economic crisis in the country with severe shortages of basic essentials like food, fuel, medicine and cooking gas.

Widespread protests and violence forced Gotabaya to flee the country in July 2022 with several other members in the Rajapaksas family also going into hiding.

As he left, Gotabaya invited Wickremesinghe to take over the country with the support of nearly 60 per cent SLPP majority in the parliament.

Having gradually controlled the economic crisis, Wickremesinghe asked SLPP to support him in the upcoming Presidential Election but the Rajapaksas accused the President of dividing their party and denied any support.

Later, Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former President and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, also entered Sri Lanka's Presidential election race.

-- IANS

as/