The first presidential Election of Sri Lanka was held in 1982. Leader of the Tamil Congress party Mr Kumar Ponnambalam contested this election to win the North-East Tamil votes. Ironically Mr Hector Kobbekaduwa the SLFP candidate polled more votes than Mr Ponnambalam from North and East. Thus the first presidential election proved the effort of fielding a Tamil candidate a failure
During the 1988 presidential election sitting President J.R. got involved in getting the north-based Indian peacekeeping force, northern chief minister Varadaraja Perumal and EPRLF support to Mr Premadasa.
SLFP candidate Mrs Bandaranayake’s son then opposition leader met the LTTE leadership along with party stalwarts in the thick jungles of Wanni to gain the north and east support to Mrs Bandaranayake. However, Premadasa was able to win north – east votes. LTTE did not support Mrs. Bandaranayake.
In 1994 SLFP candidate Chandrika won the North-Eastern Tamil votes in the presidential election. During that time, she had won the general election, became the prime minister and commenced Peace talks with LTTE. A wave of ‘Chandrika’ was created in the north. Prabhakaran did not prevent Chandrika from gaining North-East Tamil votes.
UNP won the Tamil votes in the 1999 presidential election. The then President Chandrika ran a campaign that UNP candidate Ranil had an understanding with Prabhakaran. Ranil won the North-East Tamil votes. But was defeated.
Due to the 2002 peace process, Ranil contested the presidential election in 2005 and had high hopes of winning the Tamil votes. The WikiLeaks cable had stated that it was the then US Ambassador to Sri Lanka who informed Ranil that the LTTE had launched an election boycott. Norway, a peace mediator at the time, and the European Union pressured the LTTE to withdraw the boycott decision, but it was unsuccessful. The European Union banned the LTTE as a result of the boycott. The WikiLeaks cable stated that Ranil had told the US ambassador that the ambassadors of France, Italy and the Netherlands had told the EU poll observers not to request a recount of the votes, even though Ranil decided to demand a recount of the votes in the North-East after the presidential election results were announced.
Ranil mediated to obtain TNA support for Sarath Fonseka, who was the common candidate of the opposition for the 2010 presidential election. Although Ranil intervened to get support, the Tamil diaspora presented M.K. Shivajilingam as a Tamil candidate. He received non-TNA Tamil parties’ support. But Fonseka got more Tamil votes than Shivajilingam.
In the 2015 presidential election to defeat Mahinda backed by international pressure, TNA supported the opposition’s common candidate Maithripala. The intensity of international pressure was evident by the fact the diaspora did not forward a candidate.
During the 2019 Presidential elections, UNP candidate Sajith was supported by TNA, despite other Tamil parties’ opposition. Sajith polled a massive count of votes from the North and the East.
Northern Tamil parties exert massive pressure upon the TNA in the forthcoming presidential election to field a Tamil candidate. Last week when they met the Indian foreign minister they mentioned this. Nevertheless, it is reported the Indian Foreign minister has not commented on this. To execute a change to the Sri Lankan political map most powerful weapon India poses is the Tamil votes. Hence Indian foreign ministers’ silence is yet not clear.
