Sajith - Ariyanethiran clash over Tamil votes

• The concept of Tamil common candidate which is fast becoming sensitive and popular in the north and the east seems to be further eating into the ITAK vote bank
• Tamil leaders are well aware that it was the UNP that brought in the current impasse in the provincial council system through a legal snag in 2017

Illankai Thamil Arasu Katchi Parliamentarian M.A.Sumanthiran on Sunday announced that the Central Committee of his party had decided to support Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa at the September 21 Presidential election.
Although this seemed to be an important decision since the ITAK is considered to be the main political party representing the Tamils of Northern and Eastern Provinces and the single largest Tamil party among minorities, the impact of it depends on several key issues. 
The newspapers which carried this decision also carried another related story which quoted interim leader of the ITAK Mavai Senathirajah as rejecting what was announced by Sumanthiran as the party’s official position. He had claimed he had not been informed of the central committee’s decision to back Premadasa. On the next day, Monday, nevertheless, Senathirajah for reasons not revealed had said the decision of the ITAK central committee must be accepted. 
Commenting on these developments, party’s Parliamentarian S. Sritharan - while recalling that supporting a main candidate who would give an assurance on a solution to the ethnic issue based on a federal framework had been under consideration at several meetings of the Party’s Central Committee - had questioned as to what the assurance Premadasa has given on such a solution. 
In fact, the ITAK not only had discussed, but also seems to have decided to support any main candidate who would accept their demand for a federal solution in a merged Northern and Eastern Province since Sumanthiran had informed it to the media on August 13.  

Common Tamil Candidate 

Sritharan who was elected Chairman of the ITAK in January at its General Assembly but only to be suspended later by Trincomalee district court had further stated to the media that if the party goes ahead with the “wrong” decision to support Premadasa without any assurance from him on a federal solution, he would go ahead with the “right” decision to support the common Tamil Candidate. 
However, this is not the first time the ITAK laid down the federal condition to the main candidates at Presidential elections before supporting one of them without their demand being not honoured. They did so at Presidential elections in 2010, 2015 and 2019 as well. This poses a question as to how serious they are about these conditions or demands. 
Each time the ITAK supported these candidates, it was a protest vote against one of the Rajapaksa brothers. It was against Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2010 and 2015 while in 2019 they wanted to defeat Gotabaya Rajapaksa. They are so obsessed with this protest vote that they in 2010 supported Sarath Fonseka, the Army Commander who spearheaded the successful war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), even before one year had lapsed since he decimated the Tamil rebels.

Two-cornered contests

In spite of the ITAK having gone against their own demands at these past elections, it had been easy for them to justify their support for a main candidate then, as they were two-cornered contests and the Tamil people “enjoyed” expressing their enmity towards one of those two candidates. However, unlike the last three Presidential elections, any decision by the ITAK, this time, is prone to be criticized by their own people, as all the main candidates are almost equal in the eyes of the Tamil people, in terms of their commitment to resolve the ethnic issue. Namal Rajapaksa would any way be rejected at the outset for his surname.  
Yet, those main candidates are not without differences either. Ranil Wickremesinghe may be the closest south-based politician to the Tamil leaders in the recent past, mainly due to the peace talks between his government and the LTTE in 2022 as well as some of the approaches by him during the so-called Yahapalana Government which were seen by the Tamils as positive. Wickremesinghe’s move to bring in a new Constitution in 2016 with much emphasis on resolving the ethnic problem, cosponsoring the 2015 resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Sri Lanka and delisting a number of Tamil diaspora organisations from the terrorist entities list both in 2015 and 2022 earned much acclaim among Tamils for him. 
However, Tamil leaders are well aware that it was the UNP that brought in the current impasse in the provincial council system through a legal snag in 2017. Besides, Wickremesinghe’s conflicting promises on resolving ethnic issue during the last two years destroyed everything he earned. The late leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R. Sampanthan, on December 22 last year had told to Wickremesinghe’s face that his government has been hoodwinking the Tamils, according to the Tamil daily, Thinakkural. Former Chief Minister of Northern Province, C.V.Wigneswaran had also shared this view during a press briefing in Jaffna on August 28.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa, the leaders of the two Balawegayas – Jathika Jana Balawegaya (National People’s Power – NPP) and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya had undertaken visits to the North in June and they had discussions with the ITAK leaders as well. The Tamil leaders were not happy with the southern visitors’ approaches to the ethnic issue as they did not subscribe to their traditional demands such as federalism and the merger of provinces. Besides, Tamil politicians had taken Premadasa’s promise to fully implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution with a pinch of salt. 
In fact, there were reasons for it. SJB Parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake, while Premadasa was still in the North told media that what his leader meant by fully implementation of the 13th Amendment was nothing but activating the provincial council system by holding of provincial council elections. Another Premadasa stalwart, Parliamentarian S.M.Marikkar also hurriedly came forward in defence of his leader claiming that Premadasa did not promise to grant police powers to provincial councils.
Hence, Tamil media had quoted Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda, during Premadasa’s visit to the North as saying that Premadasa had made his statement on 13th Amendment without a clear idea about powers devolved to the provincial councils.  
Also the same media reported that Parliamentarian M.A.Sumanthiran had requested the SJB leader to present an unambiguous stance on power devolution that would be equally understood by both the people in the south as well as the north. 
However, the NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was not shown in such a bad light by the Tamil leaders or media during his visit to the North. Yet, the SJB has become the preferred choice of the ITAK now, apparently due to incompatibility of class interests between the leaders of the northern party and the NPP. 
The ITAK supporting Premadasa is not a totally new situation as it had voted for him at the last Presidential election as well. However, unfortunately for the SJB leader it is not the party that it was some ten years ago. Despite it having managed to continue to be the single largest party in the north, the collective strength of other parties had been far ahead of it, especially in the Jaffna District at the 2020 Parliamentary election. It polled only about 70,000 out of around 288,000 votes in the Vanni District as well.  
Ethnic gulf 
Besides, the concept of Tamil common candidate which is fast becoming sensitive and popular in the north and the east seems to be further eating into the ITAK vote bank. It has a strong case among Tamils, despite it also having the potential to widening the ethnic gulf in the country. 
Sivagnanam Sritharan, a strong Tamil nationalist whose faction within the ITAK defeated the faction led by Sumanthiran at the vote for the party leadership in January is openly campaigning for the common Tamil candidate fielded by the rival Tamil parties for the upcoming Presidential election. Interestingly, the common Tamil candidate, P.Ariyanethiran is also one of the leaders of the ITAK and a former MP of the party. The contribution of the ITAK in swelling the Premadasa’s vote bank mainly depends on this issue.