|
|
|
| Sunday, 11 September 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Elections outcome:
Will it change up-country scenario? by S. S. Warani
Major political parties contesting the Presidential polls are now concentrating to win the vote of the plantation workers. Unlike other communities, the Indian Tamil population is well organised under various trade unions, and their leaders are those who decide to whom their members should support at the provincial, parliamentary or presidential elections. According to 2001 Census, the total number of Tamils of Indian origin population was 8,55,591. However, the Foundation for Social Transformation claimed that the strength of the Tamils of Indian origin was 1,283,335 in 2004. Major concentration of this community is centred round the Nuwara-Eliya District with 55.9 percent of the population. They are represented by four parliamentarians (including one from Badulla) with a Cabinet Minister from the Ceylon Worker's Congress and one parliamentarian from the Up-Country People's Front. In the Badulla District the community's strength is 21.07 percent, Kandy 11.1 percent, Ratnapura 10.8 percent, Matara 9.04 percent, Kegalle 7.06 percent and in Colombo 7.00 percent. Although the Indian Tamil community is dispersed in various districts, including the North and East, the attention of the main political parties always centred on the Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa Provinces. The plantation sector has dozens of trade unions, among them the Ceylon Worker's Congress (CWC) led by Arumugan Thondaman, Up-country People's Front (UPF) led by P. Chandrasekeran who are Members of Parliament, Ceylon Worker's Alliance (CWA), Badulla-based Agricultural Plantation Worker's Congress (APWC), Ceylon Plantation Worker's Union (Red Flag) and the National Union of Workers (NUW) are the leading ones. A section of the UPF, led by two Central Provincial Councillors, was the first to support the PA Presidential candidate Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and as a result the party is facing a split. The National Council of the Ceylon Worker's Congress has authorised its General Secretary Arumugan Thondaman, to make a final decision whether to support the PA or UNP. He has already met both the PA and UNP candidates and President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. The CWC decision would come at the end of this week but it is expected that its outcome would be in favour of the PA. The UPF section led by Parliamentarian P. Chandrasekeran has summoned a meeting of all Tamil political parties, plantation trade unions and other organisations with a view to field an independent candidate on behalf of the Tamil people, including the North and East. The NUW has already voiced its support to the proposal. At a TV program last week a UNP parliamentarian alleged that a leading trade union in the plantations struck a billion-rupee-deal to support a particular party and it was the talk of the town last week. The APWC in a statement said the JVP and JHU supported the PA on certain conditions, but not the plantation trade unions. "The problems of plantation workers and the people of Indian origin were not the focus of attention of upcountry politicians. They did not put forward any conditions or demands to the presidential candidates. Unemployment prevails among educated youth. Workers face difficulties in obtaining National Identity Cards and their housing problem is not settled. Wellbeing of the plantation community is the priority of the Congress and anyone who promises to look into these issues would get its support," the statement said while hailing the PA for solving several problems in the past. In this polarised situation what are the prospects for the major presidential candidates in the Central, Sabaragamuwa and Uva Provinces? An analysis of the December 2000 Presidential Elections could provide a guideline for the future poll. PA scored 308,187 votes in Kandy District, while the UNP received 276,360 votes and the JVP 15,512 (PA and JVP received a total of 323,699 votes, while the difference between them and the UNP was 47,339). In the Matale District, PA won 11,252 votes while the UNP received 91,344 and the JVP 7,924. This was a clear win for the UNP taking 72,088 votes more than the PA and JVP. In the Nuwara Eliya District PA scored 147,210 while UNP 152,836 and JVP 5,879 votes. (PA and JVP jointly took just 253 votes more than the UNP). However, PA won 16 out of 21 electoral districts in the Central Province and the UNP was able to win only five, namely - Kandy, Senkadagala, Harispattuwa, Walapane and Nuwara-Eliya. In the Ratnapura District, PA won 250,409 votes while UNP scored 202,621 and JVP 16,482 votes.(PA and JVP took 64,270 more votes than UNP). In the Kegalle District PA won 210,185, UNP 176,376 and the JVP 14,997. (PA and JVP gained 48,806 votes more than the UNP). PA won all the 17 electoral districts in the Sabaragamuwa. In the Badulla District, PA scored 167,000, UNP 172,884 and the JVP 12,025.(Both the PA and the JVP received 7,141 more votes than the UNP). In Moneragala PA got 92,049, UNP 73,695 and the JVP 10,456 votes. (PA and JVP received 28,810 more votes than UNP). PA and UNP shared 12 electoral districts in Uva equally. The Ceylon Worker's Congress and the Upcountry People's Front supported the UNP. If the plantation unions, organisations and Tamil parties jointly field an independent candidate, this scenario might take a different turn, but will it change the life of the plantation workers? |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
P. Chandrasekeran
---
