EPDP: Fielding common candidate not beneficial to Tamil community

Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda has declared in Jaffna that the Tamil community shouldn’t field a candidate at the forthcoming presidential election.

Devananda, who is also the leader of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party, while reiterating his support for incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s candidature at the Presidential Poll, said that the Tamil leaders should accept responsibility for the non-implementation of the 13th Amendment fully.

The declaration was made in Jaffna this week while promoting Wickremesinghe’s candidature in the North. The Jaffna District lawmaker warned that fielding a Tamil candidate at this juncture would be severely inimical to the interests of the Tamil community.

Minister Devananda urged the electorate not to find fault with the governments of Sri Lanka and India for non-implementation of some sections of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.Parliament enacted the Provincial Council law on Nov 12, 1987 in terms of the Indo-Lanka accord.

Minister Devananda claimed that the LTTE formed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) as it feared him. However, the LTTE’s project had gone awry and the TNA was in turmoil today, MP Devananda said, alleging that the former LTTE ally was making an attempt to regroup by promoting the common candidate idea among the Tamil community.

Minister Devananda said that the Indo-Lanka accord had been entered into and implemented in the wake of the Tamil groups’ failure on the war front, as well as in upcountry areas, due to ideological differences.The North East Provinces would have been in a much better situation today had the Tamil community accepted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution at that time (SF)