The former Sri Lankan president, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, claimed responsibility for finishing 75% of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during her tenure.

Speaking at an interview in her residence, Kumaratunga, who plays a key role in the common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena’s election campaign, said,

The Tamil National Alliance MP Seenithambi Yogeswaran said that his party will announce by the end of the month which one of the two presidential candidates it will support.

Speaking during a conference in India on Saturday, Yogeswaran said the TNA did not want to influence the outcome of the elections by backing a candidate pre-maturely and that the party would wait for both ‘anti-Tamil’ candidates, incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa and his challenger Maithripala Sirisena, to release their manifestos, The Hindu reported.

The MP said the TNA will not boycott the election.

“We will take part in the democratic process and exercise our democratic right,” he said.

“As of now, Mr. Sirisena’s prospects look bright.”

Meanwhile the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), the largest constituent party of the TNA, said its members are “keen” to exercise their franchise and vote at the elections.

Two Tamil women have testified that their children were shot and killed by the Sri Lankan Army, as the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP) began to collect testimonies from Vavuniya on Sunday.

Uthayan reports the two mothers describing to the Commission how their children failed to return home from a visit to the Chettikulam hospital, and were shot dead near an army camp three days later.

A student at the University of Jaffna was assaulted on Sunday evening, by four men who stated they were from Sri Lanka's military intelligence wing.

The student, who is currently a second year undergraduate, was detained by the officers at 10pm local time and taken in front of university premises where the assault took place, reported the Uthayan newspaper.

The officers then called a friend of the victim, a third year student, and demanded that he come immediately to the university in order to ensure his friend is released.