TNA demands voting rights for refugees

By W. Siri Ananda-2013-05-12

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has demanded that voting rights be granted to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in camps in Tamil Nadu and facilities be set up to enable them to vote in the upcoming Northern Provincial Council election. An estimated 100,000 Sri Lankan Tamils are living as refugees in Tamil Nadu.

The TNA has noted that facilities should be set up for the former residents of the Northern Province, in order to enable them to vote, similar to the expat voting rights extended by countries such as Australia, the US and India.

In the meanwhile, it has been proposed during a Cabinet meeting, Sinhalese and Muslim residents who had been forced out of the Northern Province during the late 70s and the early 80s should be accommodated in the new electoral list for the North. Minister of Technology, Research and Atomic Energy, Patali Champika Ranawaka, and Minister of Industry and Commerce, Rishad Bathiudeen, have also proposed at a recent Cabinet meeting that those who had been driven away from the Northern Province by the LTTE be granted lands within the province and restore their rights.

National Organizer of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe, claimed the Sinhalese population in Jaffna has been reduced from 20,402 in 1971 to 746 in 2011 due to LTTE activities. Likewise, the Muslim population has also reduced from 10,312 to 2,648 during the same time period, according to a census conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics. All rights, including the right to land in the Northern Province, should be given to these people."

Meanwhile, well-informed government sources told Ceylon Today over 1,500 hectares of government land in Kilinochchi have been allocated for the newly-resettled landless Muslim families.

New law to enable people displaced from North to vote SATURDAY, 11 MAY 2013 In the wake of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) elections likely to be held in September, the Cabinet approval was granted to enact legislation enabling those who were displaced from the North between May 1, 1983 and May 18, 2009 to vote at the election, Daily Mirror learns. However, this opportunity will be provided only if they have not been registered as voters in other electoral districts.   The Cabinet memorandum for this purpose was submitted by Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem.  On this basis the Legal Draftsman will be instructed to amend the Registration of Electors Act No. 44 of 1980. A large number of people were displaced from their original place of residence during the conflict in the North and now live in other parts of the country.     The Cabinet memorandum pointed out that the present Act did not provide for their registration as voters in the electoral districts of their original place of residence in the North. This had resulted in the applications submitted by them during annual revisions of the electoral register being rejected by the Elections Department. The Justice Ministry hopes to present the new legislation titled ‘Registration of Electors (Special Provision) Bill in Parliament soon. The bill, if enacted, will enable 15,000 people who are known to have been displaced between May 1, 1983 and May 18, 2009 to be registered as voters in the North. (KB)