 Premier Mahinda Rajapakse (r) enjoys a lighter moment with JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe (c) and Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa. Photo JVP |
As campaigning for Sri Lanka’s Presidential elections steps up, the Liberation Tigers made it clear this week that they do not favour any particular candidate over another and would stand aside to let Sri Lanka’s Tamils make up their own mind.
The LTTE’s stance reflects dissatisfaction amongst Tamils with both leading presidential candidates – Premier Mahinda Rajapakse of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Ranil Wickremesinghe of the main opposition United National Party (UNP).
“These 3-years’ experience (since the ceasefire) clearly shows that we have lost hope with both sides, both the UNP and SLFP,” Mr. S Puleedevan, head of the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat, told Reuters.
“Whatever they said in their manifestos is nothing to do with what they will implement,” he said.
“We have no choice at all with these two candidates (because neither) are going to deliver anything tangible to the Tamil people.”
Although Rajapakse has taken a stridently Sinhala nationalist line, sealing electoral agreements with hardline southern parties making Wickremesinghe the de-facto choice in what is essentially a two-horse race, there is wide disgruntlement with the UNP leader’s prevarication in establishing an interim administration for the Northeast and vague stances on the peace process.
Rajapakse’s pacts with the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) and the Buddhist monks’ party, the JHU, categorically rule out powersharing with the Tamils or devolution, but Wickremesinghe has embraced vague references to past proposals for powersharing.
The former Premier, whose government held six months of Norwegian-facilitated talks with the LTTE is seen as lacking commitment to resolving the conflict after a number of agreements reached at the talks failed to be implemented, including those regarding joint structures to disburse aid and reconstruct the war-torn Northeast.
The LTTE’s refusal to take a stand is likely to weaken Wickremesinghe, who is banking on the island’s minority votes to balance Rajapakse’s Sinhala nationalist pull.
However given the divergent positions adopted by the two front runners, the LTTE is thought to be keenly studying the Presidential contest to gauge popular sentiment in the Sinhala south to power sharing and peace-related matters.
Earlier LTTE spokesman Daya Master told the state-owned Sunday Observer newspaper “we have decided to be neutral... We will not support any party.”
Although the LTTE could not recommend to Tamil people to vote for any main contenders, given the “history of broken promises,” Master said “we will let people make their choice.”
The LTTE would also permit canvasing in LTTE held areas, Daya Master told the Sunday Observer, adding however that candidates would be required to obtain prior permission.
He said though the LTTE would not back any candidate, it was firm that the people’s right to exercise universal franchise should not be curtailed under any grounds.
“There were previous incidents where Tamil people were prevented from voting,” he said referring to the closure of entry-exit points to Vanni in the Parliamentary polls in 2001, disenfranching an estimated 80,000 voters.
However, in contrast to the April 2004 parliamentary elections, it is unlikely that the LTTE would swing its administrative machinery behind mobilising residents in its controlled areas to cast their votes at polling booths once again clustered in government-controlled areas.
In the 2004 parliamentary elections, the LTTE backed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a coalition of Sri Lanka’s four main Tamil political parties that later won 22 seats, becoming a pro-LTTE presence in Sri Lanka’s 225-member Parliament.
