Campaign commences in Jaffna

By Nirupama Subramanian

JAFFNA, NOV. 25. Autorickshaws fitted with speakers blare out party propaganda, every available wall is covered with posters and candidates and their supporters are going door to door distributing leaflets and pressing the flesh in good old style campaigning.

Sri Lanka's strife-torn northern peninsula has not seen an election like this in recent years. Every Tamil political party has thrown itself into the contest with vigour, and so has the United National Party. No party is boycotting this election, and unlike in the past, the only half-hearted contestants are the candidates of the radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the nationalist Sinhala Urumaya, who have no hope of getting more than a few votes in the Tamil heartland, but are participating to underline their stand that the Sinhalese cannot be excluded from any part of the country.

Participants in the election say the unprecedented enthusiasm might be due to the LTTE's non-interference in it so far. ``Last time, there was a feeling that the LTTE does not want the election. This time, as yet, there is no indication from the LTTE,'' said Mr. V. Anandasangaree, a candidate of the Tamil National Alliance and vice-president of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF).

One reason might be that the TNA, a four-party coalition, is asking to be elected in order to force the Government into negotiations with the LTTE. Candidates of the TNA seem no longer fearful that they might be on the hit-list of the LTTE, which has killed several of their leaders in the past. In eastern Sri Lanka, a few TNA candidates have even ventured to campaign in LTTE-controlled territory. ``The people are protecting us,'' said Mr. Anandasangaree. But critics of the TNA are caustic. ``They wear their pro-LTTE attitude like a bullet-proof jacket,'' remarked Mr. T. Sreetharan, a member of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, a breakaway group that has joined the TNA.

The party's own strong anti-LTTE stance has not prevented its main candidate, Mr. Thambirajah Subathiran, from going door to door seeking the support of voters, along with a handful of supporters. Backing the TNA, however, is a strong contingent of students from the University of Jaffna who are out on the streets on their bicycles canvassing voters on their own. ``We are going door-to-door telling people not to vote for any party that will support the Government, but only for the TNA or the UNP which have promised peace talks with the LTTE,'' said 23-year-old Mr. Kamalachandran, a B.Com student at the University.

LTTE songs blared out of speakers at a TNA public meeting in Suthumalai in the west Valikamam division, where a crowd of about 500, large by Jaffna standards, had turned out to hear the candidates speak. One of the speakers was Mr. Suresh Premachandran of the breakaway EPRLF, who set out the TNA demand for talks with the LTTE, and asked people to ensure the defeat of the anti-LTTE Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), which participated in the PA Government after the last election.

In stark contrast, no candidate of the EPDP ventures outdoors. Instead, EPDP organisers in various parts of the peninsula bring the people to the cavernous Sreethar cinema that has been the party office since 1997.

All those who attend these indoor public meetings are frisked thoroughly and assembled in the three movie halls in the cinema, the largest of which can hold more than a thousand people. The leader of the party, Mr. Douglas Devananda, surrounded by his gunmen, goes to each hall by turn to address the gathering.

To all, his message is the same: Tamil people can benefit only by participating in Government, not by opposing it. Only by being in Government can Tamil politicians bring money to develop Jaffna. Given enough votes, they can get a good number of seats to force a political solution as well.

Jaffna voters are also entertained by a ``statement war'' between the TNA and the EPDP in the daily Uthayan, the main Tamil newspaper in the peninsula. The tabloid-size newspaper reserves one page for this everyday.

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