Tamil votes go all over in North, East

• NORTH EAST RIFT WIDENS
• SF ALSO STANDS TO LOSE

By Sanath Priyantha and Saman Manikkaarachchi

The Tamil National Alliance and Democratic National Alliance led by General Sarath Fonseka could face a severe blow at the coming general election in the North and East as nearly one million voters who voted at the last presidential election out of 1.9 million registered voters are split in thier loyalties, between several parties.
Meanwhile, political analysts were of the view that the TNA would possibly be reduced to around 10 MPs from its earlier 22 MPs due to the split in the party , as former TNA MPs are contesting in four groups.
The Democratic National Alliance led by Sarath Fonseka could lose votes en mass in the North and East as he got 571,067 votes of the TNA, SLMC, JVP and UNP defeating President Mahinda Rajapaksa who secured only 345,221 votes from the North and East provinces. The split Tamil votes ensures only JVP votes for his alliance this time.
The North and East provinces have 31 seats altogether i.e: Jaffna district - 09 seats, Vanni district - 06, Trincomalee district - 04, Batticoloa district - 05 and Digamadulla (Ampara) - 07.
The TNA had 22 members in parliament at the 2004 general election i.e: 08 from Jaffna, 05 from the Vanni, 04 from Batticaloa, 02 from Trincomalee, 01 from Digamadulla and 02 from the national list.
At the 2004 general election, the LTTE directly supported the victory of the TNA and sent hundreds of thousands of Tamil people in buses and tractors to polling centres in Omanthai and Muhamalai.
But this time around the TNA doesn’t have the upper hand it had in the Eastern province at the 2004 general election as the Tamil people of the East have shown a tendency to move away from the Northern Tamil political parties who have joined Vinayagamurthi Muralidaran (Karuna) and Shivaneshthurei Chandrakanthan (Pilleyan).
In addition, former MPs of TNA, Shivanadan Kishor and Kanagarathnam will be contesting on the UPFA ticket while Shivajilingam will be contesting from the New Democratic Front, Raja Kuganeshwaram as an independent candidate and Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalam and Pathmini Sidambaram from the All Ceylon Tamil Congress.
The EPDP, Athaulla faction, and the All Ceylon Muslim Congress which supported President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2010 presidential election, will contest with the UPFA.
Meanwhile, the TMVP and the Democratic People’s Liberation Party and TULF leader Anandasangaree will contest separately.
The UNP will have the support of the majority of Muslims since the Muslim Congress has joined the UNP to contest the elections. Thus, there’s a possibility that the UNP MPs selected from North and East will be from the Muslim Congress.