COLOMBO: While political parties were busy trying to strike up alliances contesting the Provincial Council polls in the East, the Elections Department said yesterday that all measures had been finalised to receive nominations from Thursday. The deadline for filing nominations is April 3.

All major political parties are expected to join the fray in a contest where 37 members which includes two bonus seats, would be chosen out of a total of 44 from three districts, namely Batticaloa (11), Trincomalee (10) and Ampara (14) for the PC of the de-merged East. The East was de-merged from North according to a ruling by the Supreme Court, after the JVP submitted a petition against the merger which was done in 1987 by the then Government under former President J. R. Jayewardene.

Most political parties are yet to finalise their nominations with bargaining taking centre stage in a bid to forge alliances to seek power in this most important province that had been rid of the LTTE presence by the Government. One of the key parties in the contest, the SLMC is still undecided and its high command is expected to meet today to arrive at a final decision, according to its spokesman Hassen Ali.

Ali told the Daily News yesterday that they had received invitations from both the UPFA and UNP to form an alliance, and that discussions were continuing with the idea of a joint Muslim alliance too being mooted considering the fact that Muslims are the dominant community in the East. Meanwhile, the TMVP which swept the board in the Batticaloa local polls, has decided to team up with the UPFA which has the backing of a number of other parties who are stakeholders of the Government. Both the JVP and EPDP have decided to go it alone with the TULF deciding to align with the EPRLF (Padmanabha faction) and PLOTE. Only the TNA seems to be undecided with sources claiming a possible withdrawal due to pressure from the LTTE.

The UNP too has decided to forge ahead by finalising its nominees with some key Parliamentarians touring the East to get a feel of the ground situation and explore the possibility of a marriage with the SLMC. Meanwhile, according to sources Police with the help of Security Forces are in the process of mapping out an elaborate security plan after their efforts came in for high praise from all quarters at the Batticaloa local polls, where violence was reported to have been at an all time low.

(Courtesy : Daily News)