By Shamindra Ferdinando

Top spokesperson for Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) and Batticaloa District lawmaker Shanakiyan Rasamanickam yesterday (13) said efforts made in some quarters to confuse the Tamil speaking electorate had been convincingly defeated and their decision to support Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) candidate Sajith Premadasa at the Sept. 21 election had been communicated to their people.

MP Rasamanickam emphasised that the ITAK had moved swiftly and decisively to counter attempts by a small but an influential group of people to misinterpret its decision taken at a Central Committee meeting held in Vavuniya on Sept. 01.

The Batticaloa District ITAK strongman said so in response to The Island query as Jaffna district ITAK lawmaker S. Sritharan continued to dispute the decision taken at a properly constituted meeting in compliance with due procedure.

There were a couple of vacancies in the 41-member CC. Of the available membership, 31 members attended the Vavuniya meeting where a decision was made to back the candidature of Sajith Premadasa, MP, he said pointing out that 26 CC members out of 31 present had declared their support for the SJB leader, whereas two assured they would abide by the decision taken by the party, and three threw their weight behind Tamil candidate Pakkiyaselvam Ariyanenthiran.

“We perused the manifestos of three main candidates – independent candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe, SJB leader Sajith Premadasa and NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. An overwhelming majority accepted the SJB leader’s manifesto,” MP Rasamanickam said. Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and All-Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), too, have declared their support for the SJB leader.

Declaration of Pakkiyaselvam Ariyanenthiran as the common Tamil candidate, backed by former militant groups TELO and PLOTE (both constituents of Tamil National Alliance) and EPRLF, had been in line with their overall strategy to undermine the ITAK decision, MP Rasamanickam said. Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani (TMTK), led by retired Supreme Court Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, MP, backs Ariyanenthiran, while parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam’s All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) wants people to boycott the presidential election – for the fourth occasion since the conclusion of the war in 2009.

Responding to another query, the MP insisted that the Northern and Eastern electorates weren’t so naive to be deceived by the fielding of a common Tamil candidate at a moment when the country was at a crossroads. Over 17.1 million are eligible to vote at the Sept. 21 national poll.

ITAK is the leading party in the TNA, with TELO and PLOTE being the other constituents. The TULF, that had been among the original line-up, left the grouping shortly thereafter, and EPRLF quit much later. As the TNA hadn’t been recognized by the Election Commission, the grouping contested under the ITAK’s symbol and represents Parliament under the same. The third largest grouping in parliament consists of 10 MP s.

According to MP Rasamanickam, of that group, six were members of the ITAK. Except for Sritharan, who represents the Jaffna electoral district, the rest declared their support for the SJB leader, the MP said.

Commenting on post-R. Sampanthan developments, the outspoken MP said that against the backdrop of Jaffna District Court issuing an injunction preventing the ITAK from holding its general convention in February this year, MP Sritharan couldn’t function as the leader, therefore those responsibilities would be performed by former MP Mavai Senathirajah, Rasamanickam said.

The MP stressed that in terms of their party Constitution, the leader, regardless of his status, wasn’t above the CC. Therefore, in spite of contradictory views expressed over the contentious issue of their backing for the SJB leader, the decision taken by the CC, following a spate of deliberations, remained unchanged, the parliamentarian said.

MP Rasamanickam said that the party would continue the dialogue with the SJB leader, in line with their overall objective of reaching consensus with his government.

Presidential hopeful Premadasa has repeatedly declared his intention to fully implement police and land powers in terms of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, enacted in November 1987, consequent to the Indo-Lanka peace accord of July 1987.