TNA will not support 20A as number of seats in Jaffna cut down

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will not be supporting the 20th Amendment, which has recently been approved by the Sri Lankan cabinet, as it will reduce the number of parliamentary seats in Jaffna from 11 to 6, said spokesperson Suresh Premachandran.

The Sri Lankan cabinet approved the amendment on Friday, which will see the number of seats in parliament increase from 225 to 237, reports Adaderana. The new system will also see 125 MPs elected by the first past the post system, 75 by proportional representation system and the remaining 25 members from the National List.

TNA members, including leader R Sampanthan, met in parliament to discuss the proposed amendment said Mr Premachandran, as he declared the TNA would not be supporting the legislation.

He said it would be in the “best interests” of Tamils to oppose the amendment and that its passing would affect relations in general between the government and the TNA.

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