Shanakiyan slams decision to field Tamil common candidate

• Says there is no need to put forward a Tamil common candidate for the 2024 Presidential election
• Criticises idea of several parties with no voter base announcing a common candidate
• Claims Tamil people have no interest in a Tamil common candidate at this time 

Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam has asserted that there is no need to put forward a Tamil common candidate for the 2024 Presidential election. 

Addressing the media, he criticised the idea of several parties with little to no voter base announcing a common candidate, calling it unacceptable. “There is no need for a common candidate. The Tamil people have no interest in supporting one. One of the current candidates will inevitably become President. There is also speculation that this common candidate was introduced to serve the interests of another candidate, to prevent votes from going elsewhere,” he said.

On 8 August, former MP P. Ariyanethran announced his candidacy for the upcoming Presidential election as the Tamil common candidate. 

He is being supported by the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) led by MP Selvam Adaikkalanathan, People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) led by MP Dharmalingam Siddharthan, Tamil United Political Front (TUPF) led by MP C.V. Wigneswaran, Tamil National Party (TNP) led by Attorney-At-Law N. Srikantha, and the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) led by former MP Suresh Premachandran.

Ariyanethran has maintained that the main purpose of contesting the upcoming Presidential polls is to voice the collective disappointment of the Tamil people.

However, the ITAK, led by MP S. Shritharan, has consistently opposed the idea of fielding a Tamil common candidate. Senior ITAK leaders have been critical of the move considering that minority votes will be decisive in this election, especially since the leading candidates have already declared their candidacies. The ITAK has yet to decide which candidate the party will support.

Meanwhile, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), under the leadership of Selvarajah Kajendran in the absence of Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, has called for a boycott of the upcoming Presidential election by the Tamil community. The TNPF has urged Tamils to refrain from voting until their aspirations are fully addressed.