Reducing Jaffna parliamentary seats ‘undemocratic’
July 31, 2011 02:31 pm
Attention to the matter of the decrease in the Jaffna District’s voter base has to be drawn through a political point of view and not through administrative decisions, says the United National Party condemning the decision taken to reduce the number of parliamentary seats allocated to the said electorate.
Citing recent media reports on a possible reduction of parliamentary seat allocations for the Jaffna District in view of the decreased in Jaffna voter base since 2009, the UNP points out that there can be several reasons to this and that none of them are ordinary or natural causes.
A statement issued by the Central Bureau of the United National Party (UNP) stressed that for over 30 years the Tamil public has fled their ancestral lands due to the war and added to that administrative affairs were not properly carried out in the North.
“Hence there had also been a break down in the registration process.”
Controlling the lives of the people under an immense army, displacements and still maintaining high security zones has clearly laid boundaries to residing in Jaffna, according to the country’s main opposition party which asserts that such issues should be resolved through political solution and not by means of administrative decisions.
The UNP states that making such administrative decisions for issues seeking political solutions is unjust. What makes this even more unfair and undemocratic is allocating these parliamentary seats to the Sinhalese representation, thereby very openly providing the advantage of public representation to the Sinhala people, it said.
“Therefore we (UNP) say that reducing the parliament representation of the Tamil people in Jaffna is highly unjust as well as undemocratic.”
The party in its release further urged the government to bring the current situation in Jaffna to a normal and peaceful state and then conduct a census. “A decision regarding the parliamentary seats allocation in Jaffna should be made prior to that.”
Citing recent media reports on a possible reduction of parliamentary seat allocations for the Jaffna District in view of the decreased in Jaffna voter base since 2009, the UNP points out that there can be several reasons to this and that none of them are ordinary or natural causes.
A statement issued by the Central Bureau of the United National Party (UNP) stressed that for over 30 years the Tamil public has fled their ancestral lands due to the war and added to that administrative affairs were not properly carried out in the North.
“Hence there had also been a break down in the registration process.”
Controlling the lives of the people under an immense army, displacements and still maintaining high security zones has clearly laid boundaries to residing in Jaffna, according to the country’s main opposition party which asserts that such issues should be resolved through political solution and not by means of administrative decisions.
The UNP states that making such administrative decisions for issues seeking political solutions is unjust. What makes this even more unfair and undemocratic is allocating these parliamentary seats to the Sinhalese representation, thereby very openly providing the advantage of public representation to the Sinhala people, it said.
“Therefore we (UNP) say that reducing the parliament representation of the Tamil people in Jaffna is highly unjust as well as undemocratic.”
The party in its release further urged the government to bring the current situation in Jaffna to a normal and peaceful state and then conduct a census. “A decision regarding the parliamentary seats allocation in Jaffna should be made prior to that.”
