“Accepting our request and rejecting the call to boycott or to vote for a Tamil candidate and by voting for Mr. Sajith Premadasa the Tamil people have sent a clear message to the leaders of our country and to the international community, that the Tamil people are firm in achieving their rights, within a united undivided indivisible country. On behalf of the Tamil National Alliance, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Tamil people and I also urge that this unity must be preserved and continued.” says TNA in issuing a statement on the recently held presidential election.
Full statement follows:
Press Statement/20.11.19.
The Presidential election held on 2019.11.16 to elect the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka has been peaceful and Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been declared elected as the President of the Republic of Sri Lanka. We extend to him our congratulations.
I take this opportunity to thank the Elections Commissioner and his staff, Security Forces, all other public servants, Local and International monitors, and to all Leaders and members of all political parties for all their support and commitments in conducting a peaceful election.
The people belonging to all Administrative and Electoral districts in the North and the East have very largely voted for Mr. Sajith Premadasa who in his Election Manifesto outlined certain features pertaining to the resolution of the longstanding national question.
The Tamil National Alliance requested the people to vote for Mr. Sajith Premadasa and for his symbol the Swan. This was based on the concept of maximum devolution of power, and thereby achieving a solution to the national question within a united undivided indivisible Sri Lanka. All major political parties and leaders have accepted that maximum devolution of power is needed to find a solution to the national question.
Accepting our request and rejecting the call to boycott or to vote for a Tamil candidate and by voting for Mr. Sajith Premadasa the Tamil people have sent a clear message to the leaders of our country and to the international community, that the Tamil people are firm in achieving their rights, within a united undivided indivisible country. On behalf of the Tamil National Alliance, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Tamil people and I also urge that this unity must be preserved and continued.
Our wish is that the new President will respect the very substantial democratic verdict of the Tamil people of the North and East and it is my belief that he will do so. It is only then that we can bring about a sense of oneness and the feeling that we are all equal citizens of one country and this country will be protected and that by creating such an environment we can achieve major economic and social development which will benefit all the people of this country.
This is the message I wish kindly to bring to the notice of the new President and those who are aligned with him, on behalf of the Tamil people
Once again, I thank all Tamil people who followed our advice and voted for Mr. Sajith Premadasa and his symbol of the swan, and also extend our congratulations to the new President.
R Sampanthan, Leader Tamil National Alliance
Above photo courtesy Toronto Star,