Friday, July 29, 2011The TNA has said the decision of the Elections Department to reduce the number of parliamentary seats allocated to the Jaffna District was unfair.
TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran has told the media that the decision to reduce the parliamentary seats from 10 to six was not a fair decision.
The Elections Department announced earlier in the day that the number of seats allocated to the Jaffna District may be reduced due to the decline in the number of voters by 320,000 since 2009.
The media reported that the four remaining seats would be allocated to the Ratnapura, Matara, Kurunegala and Badulla Districts.
However, Premachandran has explained that many civilians who have fled fromJaffnaduring the war were still in the process of returning to the country.
The parliamentarian has added that the party would discuss the matter with the Elections Department.
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Jul 29, 2011
Sri Lanka's Tamil-dominated Jaffna district will have its parliamentary seats slashed from nine to six as the Election Commission said the region had witnessed number of voters dropping to half the previous figure of 700,000.
The officials said the fall in number of parliamentarians was due to the country's complicated proportional representation system of elections.
Vowing to oppose the move, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which recently swept the local election in the province, alleged that the fall in voters had been due to people being forced to leave their homes due to a three-decade long ethnic violence.
"People are still returning from India after the end of the war. The diaspora still feel unsafe to return to Jaffna but when they decide to return you will find that they will not be able to exercise their franchise," Suresh Premachandran, the senior TNA MP said.
Elections commissioner's department officials said that the Jaffna district will have just six MPs representing the voters as opposed to the current number of nine MPs.
The decision has been made in view of the decreased number of voters in Jaffna. The current voter figure dropped to just over 300,000 from the previous 700,000.
During the height of the military conflict in the north and east when the LTTE waged a war to create a separate homeland for the Sri Lanka Tamils, a large number of Jaffna residents fled the area, either migrated mostly to West or located themselves elsewhere in the country, mostly in the capital Colombo.
TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran has told the media that the decision to reduce the parliamentary seats from 10 to six was not a fair decision.
The Elections Department announced earlier in the day that the number of seats allocated to the Jaffna District may be reduced due to the decline in the number of voters by 320,000 since 2009.
The media reported that the four remaining seats would be allocated to the Ratnapura, Matara, Kurunegala and Badulla Districts.
However, Premachandran has explained that many civilians who have fled fromJaffnaduring the war were still in the process of returning to the country.
The parliamentarian has added that the party would discuss the matter with the Elections Department.
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Jaffna to Lose 3 Parliamentary Seats
Jul 29, 2011Sri Lanka's Tamil-dominated Jaffna district will have its parliamentary seats slashed from nine to six as the Election Commission said the region had witnessed number of voters dropping to half the previous figure of 700,000.
The officials said the fall in number of parliamentarians was due to the country's complicated proportional representation system of elections.
Vowing to oppose the move, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which recently swept the local election in the province, alleged that the fall in voters had been due to people being forced to leave their homes due to a three-decade long ethnic violence.
"People are still returning from India after the end of the war. The diaspora still feel unsafe to return to Jaffna but when they decide to return you will find that they will not be able to exercise their franchise," Suresh Premachandran, the senior TNA MP said.
Elections commissioner's department officials said that the Jaffna district will have just six MPs representing the voters as opposed to the current number of nine MPs.
The decision has been made in view of the decreased number of voters in Jaffna. The current voter figure dropped to just over 300,000 from the previous 700,000.
During the height of the military conflict in the north and east when the LTTE waged a war to create a separate homeland for the Sri Lanka Tamils, a large number of Jaffna residents fled the area, either migrated mostly to West or located themselves elsewhere in the country, mostly in the capital Colombo.
