Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, asserted it should be the priority of the state to ensure that "communal politics" be removed from the North, and replaced by "political leadership by national level political parties". Lest there be any confusion as to which party he was endorsing, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa clarified, "such as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)".
He added,
“These voters should be given a chance because it is their democratic right. They should be given political leadership by national level political parties, such as, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)."
"One time LTTE member Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan (Karuna Amman) is now the vice president of the SLFP,” the Defence Secretary said. This is a step in the right direction."
“Only then the new voters of the North who dislike communal politics and who wish to join mainstream national politics, will receive a non - communal national level leadership.”