Sri Lanka goes to poll

Sri Lanka's third parliamentary poll in four years began under shadow of rift between LTTE's two factions, reports PK Balachanddran.

The bitter struggle for supremacy between the LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and the breakaway Eastern Commander Colonel Karuna has cast a dark shadow on the voting in the Tamil areas in Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections that began on Friday.

Reports reaching Colombo said that there was a "funereal" atmosphere in the Tamil parts of the eastern districts of Batticalao and Amparai, where Karuna had raised the banner of revolt against Prabhakaran and his henchmen based in the northern area of Wanni.

"Very few people are on the streets and in the polling booths in the Tamil areas. But in the Muslim areas, polling is brisk," said a resident of Batticalao over the phone.

"Because of fear of violence, political parties have not posted polling agents in the booths," he said.

Following the killing of a leading Tamil candidate, Rajan Sathiamoorthy and his brother in law and the attempt to kill the Government Agent and Chief Electoral Officer R Mouna Guruswamy and university don Professor T Tiruchelvam, there is a widespread fear of violence.

The Karuna group of the LTTE had distributed a pamphlet asking Tamils from the Northern district of Jaffna, to leave Batticalao. " Drive out the outsiders," the pamphlet exhorted. Following this, anything between 7,000 and 9,000 Tamil families have fled the district, reliable sources said.

This is expected to adversely affect the chance of Joseph Pararajasingham, the lone Prabhakaran loyalist in the list of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Pararajasingham, like Prabhakaran, is not for Karuna's "Eastern regionalism".

The other candidates in the eight member district TNA list are Karuna'scandidates.

Political observers expect Karuna to influence the voting behaviour ofTamils living in areas under his control, called "uncleared" areas. There are about 75,000 voters in these areas. "These could be threatened into voting for Karuna's candidates in the TNA list," a resident said.

LTTE accused of "rigging"

Non-LTTE political parties are alleging "massive rigging" of votes in the northern districts of Jaffna and the Wanni by the Prabhakaran group of the LTTE.

"The LTTE is having a field day casting the votes of the dead, disabled and the displaced.Young boys are voting for the old!," complained V Anandasangaree, President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) who is standing as an Independent in Jaffna district.

Sri Lankan election law does not insist that a voter should show his National Identity Card. The voting card is enough.

"The polling officers are not just not bothered," Anandasangaree said."The so-called indelible ink is hardly indelible," said PLOTE leader D Siddharthan, who is standing in Wanni.

"The voters list here was drawn up in 1986 and the youngest voterer should be not less than 35 years old. But many of the voters today were as young as 18," he pointed.

Siddharthan that all the political parties, barring the LTTE-backed TNA, withdrew their polling agents from the 64 booths meant for voters from the LTTE (Prabhakaran) controlled areas in protest. "We have sent a complaint to the Election Commissioner," he said.

The Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) wanted the Election Commission to post officers from outside the North in the polling stations in the north because local officers were under the thumb of the LTTE (Prabhakaran). But this demand was not acceded to on the grounds that it was not possible to find officers from other areas to work in a dangerous like the North.

The Prabhakaran group of the LTTE is desperately trying to use the current elections to prove that it is the "sole" representative of the Tamil people of the North and East. Those trying to deny this status to it are the Karuna faction (in the eastern districts of Battcalao and Amparai) and the other Tamil parties in the Northern districts.