[TamilNet, Monday, 23 September 2013, 08:23 GMT] – The obsession of utmost priority for a section of TNA leadership is to satisfy the Sri Lanka saving agenda of New Delhi and Washington, by interpreting the TNA victory as supersession of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution based mandate of 1977, political observers in Jaffna commented on a statement made by the TNA leader Mr. R. Sampanthan, aided by Mr M.A. Sumanthiran, at a press conference convened in Jaffna on Sunday. Sampanthan talking of united and undivided country described the TNA victory as a clear verdict of Tamils, unprecedented in the political history of the island. Answering a question raised by an Eezham Tamil journalist that how then he views the 1977 verdict, Sampanthan said that there is nothing wrong in stating that the present victory is greater than the 1977 one. Sumanthiran was heard aiding him in answering the question. Without giving an opportunity to the genocide-affected people to decide on their political status, and without proving anything on demilitarization, territorial integrity of Eezham Tamils, prevention of demographic genocide, internationally recognizable constitutional guarantee for the nation of Eezham Tamils and even an international investigation on the war crimes, New Delhi and Washington are able to extract such assurances and interpretations from a section of Tamil leadership that jump at a hollow and nothing-new PC election, the observers commented.
[Sunday 22 September 2013 ] Sri Lanka’s main ethnic Tamil party won a convincing victory in the country’s northern provincial elections, according to results released on Sunday, in what has been seen as a resounding call for wider regional autonomy in areas ravaged by a quarter-century of civil war. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will form the first functioning provincial government in the northern Tamil heartland after securing 30 out of 38 seats in Saturday’s elections, Sri Lanka’s elections commission said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s coalition won the rest of the seats. The win provides a platform for the TNA to campaign for an autonomous federal state, though the provincial council is largely a toothless body. The Tamils have fought unsuccessfully for self-rule for six decades, at first through a peaceful struggle and then the bloody civil war. The elections were seen by the international community as a test of reconciliation between the Tamils and the majority ethnic Sinhalese, who control Sri Lanka’s government and military.