'Batticaloa polls results an eye opener'

Nadira Gunatilleke

The results of the Batticaloa Local Government Election should open the eyes of the International community and foreign media because the Tamil community in the Eastern Province have addressed and answered them, United People's Freedom Alliance Secretary and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said.

He was addressing a special press briefing at the Government Information Department Auditorium yesterday. He said that in 2006 Local Government Election held in the East recorded a voter turnout of 62 per cent and this year it is 60 percent. 80 per cent of the people in Koralepaththuwa North have voted. It is not even one year passed since the Government freed the Eastern Province from terrorism.

Soon after that, the people settled down in their original homes according to their wish. There was no forceful resettlement. PAFFRAL deployed 380 local monitors and 12 foreign monitors to monitor the election. UPFA contested only for five Local Government bodies.

Minister Premajayantha said the UNP and certain local and foreign media created a very gloomy picture in the East and predicted that there will not be a free and fair election but the Tamil community in the Eastern Province have proved its real situation.

In Iraq the election was held after deploying 120,000 american soldiers and in Palestine armed groups involved in elections. But in Sri Lanka there were no armed groups and there was not even a single picture of them published in foreign media. Now the International community and foreign media have to accept that the people in the East received `Participatory Democracy'.

The SLMC has won the second place in several Local Government bodies proving that the TMVP does not dominate the Province. In Koralepaththuwa other political partes have scored 52 per cent of total polled proving the same.

The total polled is 60 per cent and it means 60 per cent total polled stand against the LTTE, TNA and the UNP. During the UNP regime certain `political parties' which could not elect a member to a Pradeshiya Sabha sent to Norway for training but the political parties contested in this election have won people's mandate.

A leader of any political party should understand the pulse of the people and the UNP still fails to do so, the Minister said. This result indicates few important facts. The first one is, it has given the real value of the Armed Forces' efforts on freeing the East. Now the people living in uncleared areas realise that they will also be able to enjoy the same freedom and rights in the near future and drift away from the grip of the LTTE.

The result also create a smooth background for the implementation of the 13th Amendment. People in the East have given the real value of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's efforts to defeat terrorism and assure people's democratic rights, the Minister added.

The Minister said steps will be taken shortly to organise seminars and workshops for the political parties to give them an understanding on administrative activities.