‘Opp. Leader becomes a traitor if he supports poll postponement’

Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan would become a traitor if he supports the government to postpone the poll for the Eastern Provincial Council, the local election watchdog CAFFE said yesterday.

It said though the Election Commission had decided to call for the nomination for the eastern provincial council election on October 2, the Prime Minister had declared a gazette postponing the poll for the provincial councils of Eastern, North-central and Sabaragamuwa for more than two years.

“If Opposition Leader allows the ‘Colombo Government’ or ‘Sinhala Parliament’, as Northern Tamil youths refers it, to postpone PC elections and to control them, he will become a traitor not only of the people of the Eastern province but also the progressive people in the South,” CAFFE Executive Director Keerthi Tennakoon said yesterday.

He said the progressive people in the South had sacrificed their lives for the provincial council system. “More than 30,000 people lost their lives to create the PC system. The UNP which introduced the PC system and the JVP which went against the system today attempt to diminish the PC election map from a parliament coup,” he said.

He said the TNA including Opposition Leader Sampanthan, Muslim political parties and the leaders of Tamil progressive or conservative estate unions should be labelled as traitors if they approve the government’s move to postpone PC polls.