Political rights of Tamil people stolen - Sampanthan
August 10, 2011 03:53 pm
The political rights of the Tamil people have been stolen with the decision to reduce the number of Parliament seats for the Jaffna District, Tamil National Alliance Parliament Committee Leader MP R. Sampanthan stated in today (August 10).
He said that the Jaffna District was still not normalized while the resettlement work had yet to be completed. He added that the decision to reduce the number of parliament seats for Jaffna was adding to the burden on its people who have suffered through a 30 year war.
In response to these claims, Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne stated in parliament that the move to reduce the number of seats for Jaffna was not an arbitrary decision on the part of the Elections Commissioner.
He stated that the number of seats is determined by land mass as well as the population of the area while this was not a phenomenon exclusive to the Jaffna District.
