Tamils and Muslims reject Eelam - M. M. Zuhair

The Presidential Election shows the Tamils and Muslims have rejected the Eelam project said, former MP Zuhair in a media release.

The results of the Presidential Election have disclosed that President Mahinda Rajapaksa who obtained 226,000 votes from the entire North and East in the Presidential Election of 2005 has enhanced his vote-base to 346,000 an increase of 53 percent while the opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka has enhanced opposition votes received in 2005 by only 28 percent. Out of the resident votes of nearly 1,500,000 almost 60 percent namely 888,000 voters from these two provinces have voted for two candidates who played the lead roles in crushing the LTTE.

In addition, out of the 346,000 votes President Mahinda Rajapaksa received in the North and the East, 225,000 votes have come from the Tamil and Muslim areas, if the predominant Sinhala areas of Ampara, Pottuvil and Seruvila in the East are excluded.

This was stated by former Member of Parliament M. M. Zuhair PC in a media release.

An important factor is that the Northern voters by voting for two Southern candidates who spearheaded the destruction of the LTTE were conveying a message, namely that they were no longer willing to accommodate the Eelam project. They had done so with the largest number in 30 years turning up at the polls even as nearly 70 percent ignored the TNA’s campaign to have Fonseka elected President. It would be incorrect to say that those who did not vote for President Rajapaksa were supporters of the Eelam project.

The results of the Presidential Election 2010, show that the people of the North and the East have rejected the confrontational politics that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) sought to foist on the people with the active support of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC).

The coming General Election should be taken advantage of by the Tamils and the Muslims to join hands with all others particularly the Government.

In some areas, the SLMC had succeeded in misleading the people to vote with the opposition. The people of these areas had been mislead to believe by both Sambandan and Hakeem that opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka would win. They now find themselves in grave difficulty having lost the electoral battle. The voters of the North and the East must, at least now, not forget who mislead them, into becoming partners in the opposition. The forthcoming general election is yet another good opportunity for the two communities not to miss the bus.