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Stage set for provincial poll

COLOMBO: Nominations for the election to the Provincial Council (PC) in the east, being held after a gap of two decades, will be received till April 3, the Election Commission of Sri Lanka has said.

Thirty-five members are to be elected from Batticaloa, Trincomalee, and Ampara districts with two bonus seats.

Additional Elections Commissioner W.P. Sumanasiri told the media on Thursday that applications for postal votes and displaced persons would also be accepted till April 3. Unlike the March 10 election to nine local bodies in Batticaloa district, the PC election is being contested by all the main political parties barring the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Most parties are yet to finalise their nominations as talks are in progress for electoral alliances.

One of the key parties in the contest, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) could have a tie-up with the main opposition United National Party (UNP).

The Tamil Makkal Vidutalai Pulikal (TMVP), which swept the Batticaloa local polls, has decided to team up with the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). Both the JVP and EPDP have decided to go it alone with the TULF deciding to align with the EPRLF (Padmanabha faction) and PLOTE.

In the aftermath of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 the provinces of the north and the east were temporarily merged and elections to elect a North-East Council were held in 1988. The Council was dissolved in 1990.

In October 2006, the country’s Supreme Court, on a petition filed by the Janatha Vimukthi Permuna, held the temporary merger of the north and east “null and void” on technical grounds; consequently the north and the east was de-merged.

The election is being held as per the interim recommendations of the Presidential All Parties Representative Committee (APRC), constituted to evolve a consensus on resolution of the conflict.

Separately, the military claimed that 28 LTTE cadres were killed and similar numbers injured in the Wanni and in the North. Two army soldiers died while six others were injured.

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