Speaking to the press in Jaffna, former Chairman of the Northern Provincial Council, C.V.K Sivagnanam, maintained that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) would not field a common candidate ahead of Sri Lanka's presidential elections.
Sivagnanam noted that whilst some parties had called for a Tamil candidate at the polls, with some having suggested "names and published pedigrees of persons who could be the presidential candidate" this would not be the position of the TNA.
"The TNA has decided that under no circumstance, there would be a common Tamil candidate at the next Presidential elections. Instead, we have decided to support a candidate who comes up with a proposal to find solutions for the problems of the Tamil people,” he maintained.
Over the last few weeks, there have been proposals presented by various political parties calling on Tamils in the homeland to unite to support a common Tamil candidate who would represent all of the issues faced and honour the Tamil aspiration.
Last week, Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader and former parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told reporters in Vavuniya that plans are afoot among some Tamil political parties to field a common Tamil candidate ahead of the upcoming presidential polls scheduled to be held later this year.
Premachandran said that the Democratic Tamil National Alliance were liaising with the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi and Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani to field a candidate who would represent Tamil aspirations, including a political solution the Tamil national question.
Earlier this month, C V Wigneswaran said that "a common candidate from among the Tamils has become essential to orchestrate the problems of the Tamils from a platform of power."
"It is an opportunity to put forward our claim for transitional justice. It is an opportunity to place our reasonable request for a Referendum in the North and East to find out what they want politically. It is an opportunity to educate the Sinhala masses of the true history of the people of this island. It is an opportunity to expose the ethnocratic nature of our successive governments to the world at large," Wigneswaran added.
Sri Lanka's presidential elections are expected to take place later this year but a date for the election is yet to be fixed.
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