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| Sunday, 28 August 2005 |
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Presidential election Parties regroup by Jayantha Sri Nissanka The fifth Presidential election will be held between November 15 and 22 in accordance with the Constitution and the Supreme Court ruling delivered on Friday. Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake is expected to gazette the election date next week. Nominations will be called in mid-September. The Elections Department has finalised arrangements to print the ballot papers. A total of 13,327,160 voters will cast their votes according to 2004 electoral list. Commissioner Dissanayake is due to hold a special meeting with Assistant Election Commissioners on Tuesday. The two major political rivals Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremesinghe are now negotiating with minority and small parties to solicit their support to win the 2005 presidential election. Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are discussing whom they should support at the election. Some TNA members have left for the North soon after the Supreme Court decision on Friday. Meanwhile, New Left Front (NLF) nominated Chamal Jayanetti as their presidential candidate after Linus Jayatillake declined to contest. Unconfirmed sources said that EROS member Arul Prakasam too plans to contest. Most of the leftist parties have decided to support SLFP candidate Mahinda Rajapakse. The SLMC high command met on Friday night and discussed at length the role of the SLMC at the 2005 election. But the meeting ended inconclusively. The high command tentatively agreed on three options; to contest the elections, support a candidate who will fulfil the aspirations of the Muslim community and contest in an alliance of small parties. However, they decided to take the final decision next week. Meanwhile, the JHU has decided to hold talks with the SLFP and UNP candidates next week to explore possibilities of agreeing on an election pact if any candidate is willing to accept five principles put forward by the JHU. JHU members will meet Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday. The JHU plans to hold talks with the JVP too. A CWC spokesman said that the party will take the final decision on their choice of a candidate next week. Though, many unofficial discussions have been held by different individuals in the SLFP with the JVP, official talks are scheduled to take place next week. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse launched his election campaign on Friday
in Matara. The UNP candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe started his campaign three
months ago. |
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