Eastern poll last nail in LTTE coffin - Minister Susil Premajayantha

Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Education, heading the Government campaign in the Batticaloa district told the 'Asian Tribune' that elections are going very much to plan.

People are determined to drive out the last vestiges of LTTE rule. This is the nail in their coffin. They are aware that voting for the UNP would annul that. We are confident that the UPFA would win close to 70 percent of seats at least.

The energetic campaign workers are going all out to ensure a victory for the government coalition, he said.

Here are excerpts from the interview given by Minister Susil Premajayantha:

Q: What is the latest about the East provincial council election ?

A: I stick to my original position, that the United Peoples Freedom Alliance will have a landslide victory in the East Provincial council elections. I am in charge of the election campaign for the UPFA in the Batticaloa district. Some of the opposition party leaders like the Tissa Attanayake, Secretary General of the UNP alleged that there are some armed groups engaged with election campaign.

So I challenged that if you can show one photograph or a video clip with proof, please show it. So far they have not done it. Then I told them that don't make baseless allegations. Because you are uttering all these baseless allegations from being in Colombo, why don't you go to those particular areas and visit those places? And tell the truth.

So far there are some election monitors stationed by several organizations the leading organization is People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL). Because they have the strength and experience in last many elections and they know how to station their representatives to monitor the election activities.

Yesterday PAFFREL in a report revealed that there was no major incidents except for some minor ones and this is the situation there.

Q: We learn that Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal is holding today a big public meeting in Batticaloa at the Webber Stadium.

A: Yes, they are having an election meeting, but I am not going to be there, because I am at Ampara today and tomorrow I will be in Batticaloa.

I understand that TMVP is involved in pocket meetings and also electorate wise election meetings. Furthermore TMVP activists are all very energetic youngsters and they are all involved in house to house campaigns distributing election pamphlets.

Furthermore, I understood that intellectuals in the province have come forward to back TMVP in the election.

Q: There is an allegation that Parliamentarian Sampathan, General Secretary of the TNA has made a statement that they do not accept this election and said that it is a farce ?

A: That is their position.

Q: We learned that TNA parliamentarians are continuously telephoning their supporters in the province and asking not to vote for TMVP and the ruling party UPFA, but to vote for UNP.

A: Asking to vote for UNP means that the TNA parliamentarian wanted their supporters to vote for Rauff Hakeem and thus voting for Hakeem means they are inviting LTTE back to the Eastern Province. People will not allow that - they want to hammer the last nail in the LTTE coffin.

Q: You mean to say that voting for UNP amounts to inviting LTTE back to the Eastern province ?

A: Of course, voting for the UNP amounts to inviting the LTTE. No doubt about it. I understand that most of the Tamils in all the three districts in the Eastern Province know very well what they should to do in these circumstances.

Q: How is the TMVP's position in the Ampara district ?

A: In the Ampaarai district they have three candidates, and I am confident that all three of them will win in Ampara. There are 76,000 Tamil votes there and if they can poll about 35 to 40,000 votes, then I think that is a best turning point. Definitely they have a clear chance of winning in that district.

Q: In this provincial council election, tell us one voter can cast how many votes ?

A: One voter can cast one vote for the Party and three preferential votes for the candidates of the same party.

Q: Will those three preferential votes be counted ?

A: Of course, after counting the party position then they count the preferential votes to find the position of the candidates.

Q: Is it possible for the voter to cast all three preferential votes to one candidate ?

A: No, he has to cast for three different candidates of his/her choice in the same party. One voter can cast one preferential vote for a candidate, thus he/she can cast his vote for three different candidate of his choice.

Q: What is the meaning of voting for the party ?

A: The party vote is used to determine the party position in all three districts and party which gets the highest number of votes will get two bonus seats, that mean 35 elected seats plus two bonus seats in the Eastern Provincial Council.

Q: There is a talk that no party will have majority in this election and the council will be a hung council.

A: I don't think that it is possible. To break this stalemate only they give two bonus seats to the party that wins majority of the votes.

Asian Tribune