“In fact this country has been enjoying democratic voting rights many decades before Mr Ban-Ki-moon’s country.”

“My decision is that I will not vote... in the Nothern Provincial Council (NPC) election I campaigned for TNA, on a platform of recognising the Tamil homeland, the Tamil nation and the right to self determination. The people voted for me in support of that.”

“To vote for Maithripala Sirisena, whose stance is against that, is against my conscience. Therefore, I will withhold my vote in this election.”

The common opposition's presidential candidate, Maithripala Sirisena, vowed this week that he would not let the LTTE rise again if he were to win the election and pointed to the presence of the former army general Sarath Fonseka within the opposition coalition as proof of this.

Observers from the Commonwealth will monitor the forthcoming presidential elections in Sri Lanka.

The group of nine monitors, led by former president of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo, was formally invited by elections commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya, and will observe both pre-election preparations and the electoral process itself.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma reiterated the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, to which the Commonwealth is a signatory, requesting a transparent, level playing field for the people to exercise their right to vote.

“Genuine democratic elections are an expression of sovereignty, which belongs to the people of a country, the free expression of whose will provides the basis for the authority and legitimacy of government,” he said.