Sri Lankan police manhandled and dragged a Tamil politician as they arrested him for staging a peaceful protest outside a government office.

A former TNA candidate for the Northern Provincial Council and campaign co-ordinator for the presidential bid of M K Sivajilingam, M. Thambirasa was arrested while carrying out a hunger strike in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat calling for the resignation of election commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya.

According to the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), an estimated Rs. 3,108 million has been spent by five candidates for their presidential election campaigning between October 14 to November 10, with Gotabaya campaign spending the most.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa blamed the incumbent government for the Easter Sunday bombings stating that those who “diluted the intelligence service” must be held responsible. 

These comments were delivered during a rally at Wennapuwa on 12 November, where he blamed rival political motives for a lack of security. During his speech he stated;

The Guardian writes that a clear and present danger is posed by the return of a Rajapaksa presidency, in its editorial on Thursday. 

The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) called on the Tamil people to “reject” the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election in a statement last week, stating that both leading parties had rejected Tamil demands.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has openly rejected Tamil demands, whilst Sajith Premadasa has ignored them entirely said the TNPF.

The home of Sajith Premadasa supporter was reportedly attacked with petrol bombs on Sunday night, with less than a week to go until Sri Lanka’s presidential election.

The former chief minister of the Northern province stated his party was offered three ministerial posts in Sri Lanka’s cabinet, in exchange for the support of one of the leading candidates ahead of the island’s presidential elections on Saturday.

Two fathers who were active in the Mullaitivu protests by families of the disappeared have died this week.

Vellaiyan Azhagan whose two sons were fallen LTTE fighters was searching for his daughter Kalaichelvi who had disappeared after surrendering to the Sri Lankan army at Mullivaikkal.

Excavation efforts in Mullaitivu last month revealed more skeletal remains, including that of at least one human skull, more than a decade on from the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils in the area.

With less than a week to go until Sri Lanka’s presidential elections, in the Sinhala south of the island, former defence secretary and front running candidate Gotabaya Rajapkasa, has widespread popularity, reports Meera Srinivasan for The Hindu.

Writing ahead of the elections, Srinivasan says,

The Jaffna University Students Union has decided not to back the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) stance of endorsing Sajith Premadasa at next week’s Sri Lankan presidential elections, says a senior Tamil MP.

Mavai Senathirajah, head of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), told reporters that “the Jaffna University Students Union had declined to abide by the TNA division to support the NDF candidate and I hope that they will have a change of heart at the forthcoming election”.