Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam rejected the need for a common Tamil candidate at the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election telling reporters:
“There is no need for a common candidate. The Tamil people have no interest in supporting one. One of the current candidates will inevitably become President. There is also speculation that this common candidate was introduced to serve the interests of another candidate, to prevent votes from going elsewhere”.
The statement follows the announcement that a group of Tamil political parties have endorsed ormer Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) parliamentarian Pakkiyaselvam Ariyanethiran as the common candidate. He is supported by the Tamil Eelam Libeartion Organisation (TELO), People’s Libeartion Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Tamil United Political Front (TUPF), the Tamil National Party, and the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).
Read more here:Tamil political parties endorse Ariyanenthiran as presidential candidate
Rasamanickam is supported in his rejection of a common candidate by Tamil politician M.A. Sumanthiran who told Newsfirst Sri Lanka that it was a “very bad idea” and "crazy". In his objection he noted that presidential election was separate from a referendum on “self-determination or a federal solution” and would “make the Tamil cause weak”. He further noted that when the candidate lost it would look badly on the causes he purported to champion such as self-determination.
