Sri Lankan police obstruct Tamil election boycott campaign

The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) has submitted a written complaint to Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Council, detailing how Sri Lankan police obstructed their presidential election boycott campaign in Amparai last week.

Footage from Amparai shows police stopping a member of the TNPF, claiming that leaflets calling for a  boycott “can't be distributed”.

“It's prohibited,” says the officer. “Demonstrations are prohibited."

In the presence of a TNPF representative, the officer-in-charge of the Thirukovil police station also said in Sinhala that this action was unconstitutional. The officer did not explain under which section of the constitution the call to abstain from voting is illegal.

Members of the TNPF were forced to abandon their campaign.

Since May, the TNPF has been urging the Tamil people to boycott the presidential election.

“The Sri Lankan government looks to the Tamil homeland as enemies,” a statement released earlier this year said. “They continue with their Buddhization, militarization, and structural genocide in the homeland. As long as the majority representation is in their hands, they will not consider the Tamils as their people but enemies.”

“The only option left to the Tamil people is to reject the presidential election.”