July 6, 2013, 7:47 pm

By Franklin R. Satyapalan


With Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya expected to announce the date for nominations to the polls to the Northern, North-Western and Central provinces on Friday, the mainstream political parties – SLFP, UNP, TNA, SLMC and JVP had indicated that they are in no hurry to appoint nomination boards to select candidates, political sources said yesterday.


The UPFA government will use the PC polls in the Northern province as the yardstick to prove to the international community its commitment to democracy and the results of the proposed PC elections to the North-Western and the Central provinces to portray its continuing popularity even after eight years in office, the sources said.


With the polls in the offing, elected members of other parties are expected to cross over to governmental ranks and the possible granting of nominations to the kith and kin of Cabinet members to contest the elections, they said.


SLFP, the main constituent party in the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, has, as usual, decided to refrain from naming its Chief Ministerial (CM) candidates for the three provinces until the conclusion of the elections, the sources said.


The party’s Central Committee presided by President Rajapaksa has decided to place Ministers Maithripala Sirisena, Susil Premajayantha and Nimal Siripala de Silva in charge of all political work relating to the proposed elections.


Premajayanth will chair the Nominations Committee for the Northern PC poll, while Minister W. D. J. Seneviratne and Sabragamuwa province Mahipala Herath will head the committees for the Central and North-Western provinces, respectively.Premajayanth has already started direct interviews for prospective candidates at the SLFP Headquarters at Darley Road, party sources said.


Meanwhile, the Elections Commissioner met with the leaders, general secretaries and representatives of political parties at the Elections Secretariat in Rajagiriya yesterday to discuss the registration of persons displaced from the North as voters.


He has also invited the general secretaries of mainstream political parties for a meeting at 3 pm on Friday, July 12 for a discussion the nominations after he announces the date for nominations, Elections Department sources said.


Deshapriya has also summoned all Deputy Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners of Elections from the districts of Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Putthalam, Kurunegala, Jaffna, Killinochchi, Mannar, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya for a meeting on Tuesday, July 16 to finalize all arrangements for the accepting of nominations, the sources said.


A spokesman for UNP General Secretary, Tissa Attnayake, who was participating at the Balamandala meeting of the party at the auditorium of the Gampola Urban Council yesterday morning, said the party is yet to activate the nominations boards under leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.


Senior parliamentarian Lakshman Kiriella was named Chairman of the Nomination Board for the Central Province, while party chairman, Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, MP, will be in charge of the North-Western Province, he said.


The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the five-party alliance which met presided by its leader, R. Sampanthan, MP, on Thursday with the participation of the ITAK General Secretary, Mavai Senathirajah, MP and parliamentarians M. A. Sumanthiran and Suresh Premachandran of the EPRLF and former parliamentarian and leader of the TULF, V. Anandasangari, former parliamentarian Dharmalingam Siddharthan and PLOTE leader and Selvam Adaykalanathan, MP, leader of TELO also met last week.


Former Parliamentarian and TELO leader, M. K. Sivajilingam said that they decided that each of the five parties in the TNA would nominate three persons each to a 15-member committee to coordinate all activities connected with the elections.


SLMC General Secretary, parliamentarian M. T. Hassen Ali said that, as proposed earlier, the party would contest alone. The party’s high command presided by leader, Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem is expected to meet today to map out plans to contest the PC polls.


The Propaganda Secretary of the People’s Liberation Front (JVP), parliamentarian Vijitha Herath said that though the party is opposed to the Provincial Council system, it would contest all the three PC polls.
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He said that the party’s politburo presided by leader Simawansa Amerasinghe will meet shortly to decide on the Nomination Boards, propaganda and campaign committees.