Sri Lanka polls: Fear keeps away potential candidates

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, AUG. 29. Tamil political parties contesting the October 10 parliamentary elections from Jaffna are scouring the peninsula for prominent citizens to include in their nomination lists, but the fear of getting killed is keeping many potential candidates away.

``We have asked some people to be on our lists. At first they agree, but when they go home, their wives and children cry, and they change their minds,'' the leader of one political party, now camping in Jaffna, told The Hindu over the telephone. ``After seeing what happened to Sarojini Yogeswaran and Dr. Neelan, very few outsiders want to enter politics.''

Gunmen of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam killed Sarojini Yogeswaran of the TULF, elected Jaffna mayor in January 1998. A year later, a LTTE suicide bomber assassinated the TULF parliamentarian, Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam.

In recent days, Jaffna's sole daily, the Tamil language Uthayan, has carried advertisements by several Jaffna personalities denying reports that they were going to be included in the list of one political party or another.

All the main Tamil parties, including the Tamil United Liberation Front, the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), the two factions of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), are contesting for Jaffna this time.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the two mainline Sri Lankan parties - the People's Alliance (PA) and the United National Party (UNP) - have decided to field candidates from the peninsula. Other smaller parties are also in the fray.

Every party has to submit a list of 12 candidates, the rule for nominations being that each list should contain three more names than the number of seats in that electoral district. Jaffna has nine seats.

It has been the practice for Tamil political groups to invite well-known outsiders to stand for elections on their lists. This they do out of sheer necessity. Years of fratricidal warfare have robbed these parties of their most able leaders. Barring those in positions of leadership now, the remaining members of these parties - this is true especially of the militant groups - are relatively unknown.

Moreover, due to the security situation, most of the parties have been unable to engage in active politics in the peninsula, which has cut them off from the people. For instance, after the assassinations of Ms. Yogeswaran, and a few months later, her successor, Pon Sivapalan, the TULF-run Jaffna municipality has not reconvened. Now the party has little choice but to depend on prominent personalities such as social workers, teachers, or popular government officials, to bring in the votes.

Only the heavily-armed EPDP, which got nine out of the 10 seats last time (the number of seats has been reduced by one for this election), enjoyed high visibility both in Parliament and in the peninsula over the last six years.

The contesting parties can take some solace that in the proportional representation system of elections, the fight is not between candidates, but only between parties. But even for this, each party must have at least one or two well-known faces in order to attract votes.

According to the TULF, it is not the fear of the LTTE, but that of other armed groups that is striking fear in the minds of those who want to contest on its list. ``We have no problems finding candidates. But they are being threatened by the EPDP. We are planning to take up the matter with the Election Commissioner,'' said Mr. Mavai Senathirajah, former TULF MP.

When nominations opened on Monday, the Left Democratic Alliance led by Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara, the Liberal Party and the New Left Front, submitted their list of candidates. None of the Tamil parties have done so yet, but they have time till next Monday.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Library that keeps a nation's conscience
Next     : Pakistan parties' disregard for national dignity
           denounced