Ever since the election year dawned on Sri Lanka, doubts about whether the election would take place persisted. Even some leading political players were skeptical. Many ordinary Sri Lankans did not believe that it would take place. They believed Sri Lanka’s shrewd political class would find a way to cancel the election in 2024. This doubt was finally resolved with the gazette notification, which scheduled the much-anticipated presidential election for September 21. Reportedly, many aspiring candidates, including President Wickremesinghe, have paid their deposits.
The official confirmation of the election would undoubtedly generate animated discussions and debates about many issues. One of the questions would be about the Tamil attitude toward the election. The conventional wisdom is that the candidate who wins the minority, especially the Tamil confidence, would win the election. Once, it was suggested that the presidential election could not be won without minority votes. There is very little truth in it. Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the 2019 presidential election without minority votes, a fact he repeatedly emphasized in his book, The Conspiracy to Oust Me from the Presidency. Nevertheless, having the Tamil votes could be helpful, which explains the interest in the Tamil attitude.
A segment of the Tamil polity always prefers to boycott presidential elections. In line with the LTTE philosophy, this segment likes to treat presidential elections as an affair of the South. This time around, the call for a boycott is muted. There could be two reasons for this. One, they learned a lesson in 2005. Two, Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam, leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), is absent from the political scene, most likely due to health issues.
This time, there has been a demand to contest the presidential election by fielding a common Tamil........