Colombo, Aug 19 (PTI) The main Tamil minority party Tamil National Alliance on Monday said it was awaiting the manifestos of major candidates in the fray in the presidential election scheduled for next month to guide as to who the Tamil minority should vote.
Shanakiyan Rasamanikkam, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) legislator, told the media that the alliance’s executive committee on Sunday extensively deliberated on the impending decision without a conclusion.
“We unanimously decided to wait for the manifestos of the major candidates to see their solution that would be offered to Tamils,” he said.
The island nation is scheduled to vote in the presidential election on September 21 where as many as 39 candidates are in the fray.
Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe, the main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and the leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Anura Kumara Dissanayake are the front runners.
Rasamanikkam said there were different schools of thought in the committee.
While a section of them favoured voting for the Tamil common candidate another group said they should not align with any candidate. Another section said the Tamils should be allowed a free will to vote.
Among the 39 candidates is a Tamil candidate who is a former legislator branding himself as the common Tamil candidate.
However, the TNA has distanced itself from the common candidate name and called for disciplinary action against Pakiyaselvan Ariyanethran for defying the party.
Wickremesinghe and Premadasa have both expressed publicly their readiness to fully implement the India mooted 13th amendment which gave provincial councils to the north and east Tamil provinces.
More than 2.2 million of the eligible 17.1 million registered voters come from the two provinces. PTI CORR PY AKJ PY PY
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