COLOMBO, 8 October 2005 — Sri Lanka’s prime minister and its top opposition leader filed past soldiers guarding the Election Commission office yesterday to register as candidates for presidential elections that will determine the course of the country’s peace process with Tamil rebels.
Anti-terror commandos guarded the compound as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and top opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived to file applications for the Nov. 17 election shortly before a deadline. They stood by as Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake declared them eligible, along with 11 other candidates.
The campaign is largely seen as a referendum on how to end the ethnic civil war with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. Rajapakse has courted nationalist parties opposed to the Norwegian-brokered peace process with the rebels, and has vowed to review the foundations of the peace process if elected.
Wickremesinghe wants to revive peace talks with the rebels that have been stalled since 2003 and solve the conflict through a federal system.
Rajapakse wore a traditional Sri Lankan outfit of sarong and long shirt and waved to supporters as he arrived at the election office. Soldiers took positions along the streets leading to the offices.
“My aim is to safeguard the nation, bring peace and make it prosperous,” Rajapakse said. “We want to create a country where people can live without fear.”
Rajapakse has been a member of Parliament for 35 years and was labor and fisheries minister under President Chandrika Kumaratunga between 1994 and 2000. He became opposition leader when his party lost December 2001 parliamentary polls, and prime minister when it was re-elected in 2004.
Wickremesinghe, wearing a white shirt and black trousers, pledged to unite his island country of 19 million people after two decades of civil war. “I want to bring the parties together, unite the country and bring a final solution to the peace process,” Wickremesinghe, who signed the truce with the rebels, told reporters.
A total of 14 candidates submitted their papers for the Nov. 17 election, but Zainulabdeen Nazeer Ahmed, a prominent candidate representing the country’s Muslim minority, did not show up to complete the process and was disqualified.
Meanwhile, an unidentified gunman yesterday killed an ethnic Tamil man in northern Sri Lanka who was seeking employment with a party opposed to the Tamil Tiger guerrillas. Kandasamy Senthilkumaran, 45, was gunned down in Jaffna town by a man riding on the back of a motorcycle and died immediately, military spokesman Brig. Nalin Witharanage said.
Last week, Senthilkumaran traveled to the Sri Lankan capital Colombo to apply for a job working for Hindu Religious Affairs Minister Douglas Devananda, said a relative of the victim. Devananda is also the leader of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party, a former militant group that renounced the armed struggle and joined mainstream politics about a decade ago.
