Wimal on EP polls

Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa says the public should focus their attention on two important facts in casting their votes in the eastern provincial council election.

The people have the responsibility of not giving the LTTE a slightest room to carryout their activities in the eastern province which was completely liberated from them by the security forces.
The public should block all opportunities that lead to the remerging of the northern and eastern provinces by using their right of franchise wisely.
In a media briefing held in Colombo this morning, Mr. Weerawansa said the Muslim Congress seems to attempting the remerge of the two provinces. He also stressed that no room should given to the pro-LTTE forces in the eastern province.
Earlier the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) dissident faction led by its parliamentary group chief, Wimal Weerawansa, has mooted the formation of a Deshapremi Peramuna (Patriotic Front) and pledged to work under that banner. They have vowed to take this action if their disputes with the party leadership are not amicably settled.

The decision by Mr. Weerawansa and ten dissident MPs to form such a front, with the backing of a number of civil society organizations and trade unions.

Political observers point out that the fact that like the PNM, the new political group also is being formed with a similar name suggests a link between the two. This development came as the crisis within the JVP worsened.