Lanka SC gives 2 weeks to TNA to respond to petitions

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court today gave two weeks time to the country's main Tamil party TNA to respond to petitions alleging that its election manifesto for northern provincial polls supported self determination for Tamils.
Some five Sinhala majority nationalist organisations filed petitions against the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) over the party's election manifesto for the September 21 northern provincial council election which it comprehensively won.
The three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Mohan Peiris gave the party two weeks to raise objections to the petitions, TNA's senior leader M A Sumanthiran said.
Nationalists have claimed that the TNA manifesto which rekindled the memory of LTTE's call for self determination for Tamils would lead to separation of the island.

The TNA recorded a landslide victory in the Tamil-majority Northern Province council elections winning 30 out of the 36 seats.
The poll outcome is regarded as a clear mandate for reconciliation by the international community, including India, who want the Sri Lankan government to achieve meaningful devolution as a solution.
The TNA victory came as Sri Lanka mulled diluting the provincial powers as an appeasement of its nationalist allies who are opposed to any power sharing with the Tamil minority.