The leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) stated that the pledges contained in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) manifesto does not reflect the thoughts of the party’s leadership, reports the Sunday Times.
Rauf Hakeem said the TNA manifesto was made up of “political postures”, adding “they are not the private convictions of their leaders”.
“At polls time they need to go back to their ideological positions,” he added. Mr Hakeem continued to say the southern electorate “should not buy into this” and concluded the TNA “would be practical”.
Meanwhile Mr Hakeem said his party was opposed to a merger of the Northern and Eastern province as outlined in the 13th Amendment. “How can it be achieved?” questioned the SLMC leader, stating “we are opposed to the merger”.
His comments directly contradict remarks made by the SLMC General Secretary Hasan Ali who said just weeks ago, “We welcome the stance of the Tamil National Alliance in its election manifesto to create a home land of Tamil speaking people, by re-merging the North and East.”
“We have never changed our expectations; we are always in the stance to re-merge the two provinces to create a homeland for the Tamil speaking people,” Mr Ali had added.
The SLMC earlier announced it will be contesting with the United National Party (UNP) in this month’s general elections.
See our earlier post: SLMC reiterates desire to re-establish Tamil homeland by re-merging Northern and Eastern provinces (28 Jul 2015)
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