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 liasing 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. 

“This has become a topic of conversation both here and abroad. We understand that certain civil society groups also support the endeavour to have a common candidate. We will discuss with other political parties that represent the Tamils as well.”

"Sri Lanka will not be able to solve its economic crisis without solving the Tamil national question," Premachandran added. 

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 opportinity 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 hitory 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.