Athaullah refutes Hakeem's claims:

Eastern Muslims supported President

by P. Krishnaswamy

Leader of the National Congress (NC) and Minister of Water Supply and Drainage A.L.M. Athaullah refuted Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem's claims that they won the overwhelming support of the Eastern Muslims at the January 26 Presidential Poll.

The claim was totally incorrect and not based on facts, he said. The SLMC was rejected by the majority of the Eastern Muslims and has lost its vote base in the province, Minister Athaullah said.

An analysis of the polls results in all electoral districts of the Eastern Province, including Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee has revealed that the SLMC did not even receive what it polled during the 2005 Presidential and the 2008 Provincial Council Elections and its vote base among the Muslims was eroding.

The majority of the Muslims voted for President Mahinda Rajapaksa while the majority of the Tamils voted for opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka. In many areas the majority of Muslims voted for President Rajapaksa while in some areas their votes were divided equally between the two main candidates.

The NC has collected all relevant figures of the polls results to prove it, the Minister said.

Apparently the Tamils have been carried away by the deceptive and unrealistic election promises of the LTTE proxies, the TNA and its leader R. Sampanthan. In an effort to deceive and mislead the public, the SLMC is highlighting this as the votes polled by the Muslims for the opposition candidate, Minister Athaullah said.

After the demise of the SLMC founder leader M.H.M. Ashraff, his successor Rauff Hakeem has not been successful in any of his strategic moves and important political decisions, including the one made at the last Presidential Election.

He has, in fact, betrayed the Eastern Muslims by trying to create an ethnic divide between the minority and majority communities.

The NC is gaining ground in the Eastern Province with many of the local leaders, senior organisers and members of local government bodies of the SLMC joining the NC, Athaullah said.

President Rajapaksa received almost two times the votes he received in the Eastern Province at the 2005 Presidential Election mainly due to the Muslim community's growing support to the NC in the province, Athaullah pointed out.