Gotta in Jaffna amidst tight security

Heavy rains failed to dampen the enthusiasm among the crowd at the first campaign rally held by SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa last Monday (October 28) in Jaffna. The rally was organised jointly by several political parties supporting the SLPP. Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) MP Angajan Ramanathan and former Chief Minister Vartharaja Perumal were on stage to support Mr Rajapaksa.

A majority of the crowd, however, were made up of EPDP supporters, mostly from the islands, including Kayts, where its leader Douglas Devananda remains hugely popular. Waving the EPDP flags, they cheered Mr Rajapaksa. Mr Devananda himself received a rapturous welcome while cheers also erupted whenever the SLPP candidate referred to the EPDP leader by name.

Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa also addressed the rally, pledging to continue the economic development that had been started by his Government under a Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency as well. It was soon after the SLPP candidate left the venue that the former President arrived at the venue.

Due to tight security, only persons whose names were on a pre-prepared list were admitted into the venue after security checks. A southern voter who was in Jaffna and wanted to attend the rally was turned away by security officials who insisted he did not have clearance to enter. The security ring around the meeting venue extended some three kilometres and our Jaffna correspondent remarked that the security cordon seemed even bigger than what is usually given to the President and Prime Minister.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa had planned to visit the Nallur Kovil before attending the meeting. The event, however, had to be cancelled as he was late leaving an earlier campaign rally in Vavuniya.

Outside the venue, there were other private meetings arranged in hotels by professionals and the business community in support of Mr Rajapaksa to discuss ways of attracting more votes from the North.

Relatives of missing persons also held a protest in Jaffna to coincide with Mr

Rajapaksa’s campaign meeting, though it was far outside the venue of the rally.

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