Courtesy: The Island
TULF leader V Anandasangaree said the TNA leaders cannot claim credit for the votes received in the North and East by opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka.
The veteran Tamil politician said the people in those areas had expressed their protest against armed paramilitary groups by voting against the ruling party candidate.
He pointed out that President Mahinda Rajapaksa might have received a higher number of votes if the government had acted to disarm the paramilitary groups in the North and East, too, with the elimination of the LTTE in May last year.
He expressed these views during the weekly ‘Minnal’ Tamil political debate aired on a private channel on Sunday night.
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauf Hakeem and Up-country People’s Front parliamentarian P. Radhakrishnan also participated in the show.
Sangaree said a majority of voters in the North were still upset with the TNA over its stance on the LTTE during the height of the war early last year.
He rejected claims that the TNA MPs were acting under duress, adding that they ignored the plight of the people suffering under the control of the LTTE.
Sangaree pointed out that the TNA members in the current parliament had not a received a mandate in a free and fair poll.
Hakeem, meanwhile, said that the people in the North and the East had endorsed the political partnership between the SLMC and the TNA in last week’s election.
He urged the ruling party to take note of the people’s verdict and engage the parties in a political dialogue to promote national unity.
Radhakrishnan urged the TNA and the SLMC to shun ‘hate politics’ and support the President’s efforts to end the displaced people’s immediate problems and also to achieve national reconciliation. (VS)
http://www.island.lk/2010/02/02/news14.html
