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Tamils have a vote, but little choice

Sydney Morning Herald - January 25, 2010

Matt Wade, Jaffna – Tens of thousands of Tamils in northern Sri Lanka are about to vote in national elections for the first time in decades tomorrow, but many are unhappy about the choices on offer in the presidential poll.

The long civil war between the Tamil Tiger separatists and the army has made it impossible for many in the Tamil-dominated north to participate in elections since the 1980s.

The military defeat of the Tigers last May has forced Tamil political parties to reassess the way they engage in politics.

At the last presidential election in 2005, the Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, ordered a boycott and threatened "repercussions" for those who disobeyed. Hundreds of thousands of Tamils shunned the poll, and voter turnout in the Tamil-dominated city of Jaffna was less than 1 per cent. This handed the election to the current President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who won the national poll by just 170,000 votes.

This time all the main Tamil parties are participating. Even the Tamil National Alliance, a party with close links to the Tigers, has backed the main opposition candidate, Sarath Fonseka, the former army chief credited with the Tigers' defeat.

But Sri Lanka's opposition has accused the ruling regime of preparing to stage a coup if it loses the presidential election. Opposition leaders point to orders to the army, plans to prevent the election commissioner announcing a result, and preparations to disrupt independent media.

President Rajapaksa's party has consistently denied any such plans and says that it expects to win fairly.

Decades of political violence in Jaffna, the Tamils' cultural and religious hub, distorted democracy in the north. Scores of politicians have been murdered since the early 1980s, most by the Tigers eliminating opponents.

Pathmini Sithamparanathan, an MP for the Tamil National Alliance, was not even able to visit her Jaffna electorate between 2006 and late last year because it was considered too dangerous.

A rally in Jaffna on Saturday underscored how the political climate has changed. Locals said the rally, arranged by the Tamil National Alliance, was the first open-air political meeting in the town in living memory.

Some interpret the participation of the main Tamil parties as a positive sign. Jehan Perera, who heads a Colombo think tank, the National Peace Council, describes this as a "breakthrough" that offers hope for future co-operation between ethnic groups.

A field of 22 presidential candidates, including Tamil contenders, will be on tomorrow's ballot, but only two have any chance – Mr Rajapaksa and General Fonseka, who has the support of the main opposition parties.

Many Tamils in Jaffna do not want either of them. "We have a choice between the man who ordered the war and the man who executed the war," said one resident.

Ms Sithamparanathan, the first female MP elected in Jaffna, said neither candidate was satisfactory but her party had decided to support General Fonseka in the hope of gaining "political space" for Tamils. She regrets the election is being held so soon after the war. "Many Tamil people are not ready to vote," she told the Herald. "The people are with their sorrows and there has been no healing." She believes most Tamils who do vote will choose General Fonseka.

But not all Tamils are unhappy with the President. The Jaffna-based Eelam People's Democratic Party has joined the Government, and its leader, Douglas Devananda, is a government minister.

Mr Devananda, a former Tamil militant, has survived 14 assassination attempts since leaving the rebels to set up his own party. He lost the sight in one eye after one attack. Inside his heavily guarded, bunker-like office he said many Tamils supported Mr Rajapaksa because he brought peace. "The President has established the right to live," he said.

Tamil parties are demanding that whoever wins the election quickly implement a power-sharing arrangement to end the ethnic tension that fuelled the bloody civil war. (with agencies)

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