SL Tamils trust Sirisena to deliver new constitution: Sampanthan

Sri Lanka's main Opposition leader R Sampanthan today said the ethnic Tamils have faith in President Maithripala Sirisena that he will deliver a new constitution to address their political grievances.

Addressing a gathering in the eastern port town of Trincomalee in Sirisena's presence, the senior Tamil leader said the minority community expects that the process of formulating a new constitution would be successful.

"There is no need to do anything in secret. It is a very open exercise," Sampanthan said, referring to Opposition's criticism that a draft of a new constitution had been secretly hatched by Sirisena's government to appease the Tamils.

"Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa pledegd to go beyond the 13th amendment by giving 13 plus in his own words," Sampanthan said.

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka created Provincial Councils in the country.

Sirisena, who was backed by the Tamils against Rajapaksa in the presidential election of 2015, launched the process to formulate a new constitution to replace the existing 1978 constitution.

However, the process got stalled much to the disappointment of Sampanathan's Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

The moderate Tamil party has come under pressure from Tamil hardliners for their inability to achieve anything meaningful for Tamils despite supporting Sirisena in 2015 against the Sinhala majority favourite Mahinda Rajapaksa.