Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Douglas Devananda denied any attempts of Sinhalisation of the North.
Addressing the media he said it was a sad thing to observe that the narrow minded politicians in the North carried out such slogans to grabbed votes. " They also alleged that the government was trying to re-visit the situations similar to setting fire to Jaffna Library and 1983 ethnic riots. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) urged not to engage the officials from the South in election duties as they had been sent with the intention of rigging votes. They also said that the President’s visit to the North was for the purpose of grabbing votes", he said.
Minister Devananda, who is also the Secretary General of EPDP claimed that some pro-LTTE web-sites carried the news on the day of the election that the ballot boxes had been made void. " TNA also said that the government was planning to break the statue of King Sangilian and in its place a statue of Buddhist monk was going to be erected. They also tried to create a confrontation with the government security forces naming some as student organizations. Election results have proved that all these allegations as false and baseless. Though the opponents have won the elections through sheer mud slinging and false allegations, there is a section of our society who understand what really has been defeated is the development of our people", he said.
“We, having contested from the United People’s Freedom Alliance at the local government election held in the Northern Province yesterday, won 03 local bodies with overwhelming majority whilst losing marginally at another two. More than 70 of our candidates have been selected at this election. At this juncture, I first wish to convey my sincere thanks and that of the contestants from my party to all those people who voted and supported us in every respect trusting the government”, Minister said.