Sri Lanka: Prominent Tamil party seeks governance structure based on federal model

ITAK reiterates demand for political solution to Tamil question ahead of Sri Lanka's presidential polls

COLOMBO

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), a prominent political party representing Tamils of Sri Lanka’s north and east, has said it would consider backing a presidential aspirant who agrees to its demand for a governance structure based on a federal model.

The party’s position, which reiterates its long-standing demand for a just political solution to the civil war-scarred country’s Tamil question, comes ahead of Sri Lanka’s presidential polls scheduled to be held on September 21. It reflects one position from within the island’s visibly divided Tamil polity.

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While some, including from the ITAK, its former alliance partners (People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), and former Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, are backing a “common Tamil candidate” in the crucial national election, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) is calling for a boycott of the polls.

Addressing a media conference in the northern Vavuniya district last weekend, ITAK’s Jaffna MP M.A. Sumanthiran said: “As the main party representing the Tamil people, we are telling all candidates openly that we need a governance structure with power devolution based on a federal model, in a merged north and east. In short, this is our political position.”

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