Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front ஈழமக்கள் புரட்சிகர விடுதலை முன்னணி ඊලාම් ජනතා විප්ලවවාදී විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ | |
|---|---|
| Secretary | Suresh Premachandran (Suresh wing) |
| Founder | K. Pathmanabha Suresh Premachandran |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Split from | EROS |
| Headquarters | 85/9 Pokuna Road, Hendala,Wattala (Suresh wing) 15C Summit Flats, Keppetipola Mawatha,Colombo 07 (Padmanaba wing) |
| Ideology | Tamil nationalism Secularism |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| National affiliation | TPNA (Suresh wing) Democratic Tamil National Alliance (Padmanaba wing) |
| Election symbol | |
| Flower (Suresh wing) Candle (Padmanaba wing) | |
| Website | |
| (suresh wing) | |
TheEelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) is a series ofSri Lankan political parties and a formermilitant separatist group.[1]
The EPRLF was formed in 1980 byK. Pathmanabha (Padmanaba), Douglas Devananda, Suresh Premachandran and Varatharajah Perumal as a breakaway faction of theEelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students.[2]
In 1982 the EPRLF formed a military wing,People's Liberation Army, headed byDouglas Devananda. The PLA is believed to have received military training by thePopular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
In early 1986 disputes amongst the EPRLF leadership led to it splitting into two factions:EPRLF (Ranjan) andEPRLF (Douglas).
In late 1986 theTamil Tigers attacked the EPRLF, inflicting heavy losses.[3] Many of its cadres were killed or taken prisoner and its camps and weapons were seized by the Tigers. Douglas Devananda was blamed for the debacle.
In 1987 theEPRLF (Douglas) faction formally split from the EPRLF. It initially formed theEelam National Democratic Liberation Front with a breakaway faction of thePeople's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam led by Paranthan Rajan, but later transformed itself into theEelam People's Democratic Party.[4]
After its military defeat by the Tamil Tigers the EPRLF transformed itself into political party and allied itself with theIndian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) who were occupying much of Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka.
The EPRLF's first foray into politics came in the flawed1988 provincial council elections. With the assistance of IPKF the EPRLF secured 41 of the 71 seats on theNorth Eastern Provincial Council.[5] On 10 December 1988Varatharajah Perumal became the first Chief Minister of the North Eastern Provincial Council.[6]
The EPRLF formed an alliance with theEelam National Democratic Liberation Front,Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization andTamil United Liberation Front to contest the1989 parliamentary elections. The alliance won 188,593 votes (3.40%), securing 10 of the 225 seats inParliament. 7 of the 10 alliance MPs were from the EPRLF.
On 1 March 1990, just as the IPKF were preparing to withdraw from Sri Lanka, Varatharajah Permual moved a motion in the North Eastern Provincial Councildeclaring anindependentEelam.[7]President Premadasa reacted to Permual's UDI by dissolving the provincial council and imposing direct rule on the province. The EPRLF's leadership fled toMadras (nowChennai),India.[8]
On 19 June 1990 the Tamil Tigersattacked an EPRLF meeting in Madras, murdering thirteen EPRLF members including leader K. Padmanaba,Jaffna District MPG. Yogasangari and formerNorth Eastern Province Finance Minister P. Kirubakaran.[9]
In 1997, after theSri Lankan military had recaptured theJaffna peninsula from the Tamil Tigers, the EPRLF re-opened itsJaffna office.[10] It took part in the1998 local elections held in the peninsula and was able to win 13,140 votes (14.35%), winning 25 seats across 11 local councils.[11]
The party broke into two factions in 1999 when its General SecretaryKandaiah "Suresh" Premachandran made a deal with the Tamil Tigers.[10] The majority of the party formed theEPRLF (Varathar) wing under the leadership of Varatharajah Perumal whilst the rest formed theEPRLF (Suresh) wing under the leadership of Suresh Premachandran.[12] Crucially Suresh had control of most of the EPRLF's assets as well as its name (as registered with the Sri Lankan Department of Elections).[10]
TheSuresh wing joined other pro-Tamil Tiger parties in 2001 to form theTamil National Alliance (TNA).
In the first parliamentary election contested by theTamil National Alliance, the5 December 2001 election, the TNA led byRajavarothiam Sampanthan won 3.88% of the popular vote and 15 out of 225 seats in theSri Lankan parliament.
Votes and seats won by TNA by electoral district
| Electoral District | Votes | % | Seats | Turnout | TNA MPs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ampara | 48,789 | 17.41% | 1 | 82.51% | A. Chandranehru (TULF) |
| Batticaloa | 86,284 | 48.17% | 3 | 68.20% | G. Krishnapillai (ACTC) Joseph Pararajasingham (TULF) Thambiraja Thangavadivel (TELO) |
| Colombo | 12,696 | 1.20% | 0 | 76.31% | |
| Jaffna | 102,324 | 54.84% | 6 | 31.14% | V. Anandasangaree (TULF) Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam (ACTC) Nadarajah Raviraj (TULF) Mavai Senathirajah (TULF) M. K. Shivajilingam (TELO) A. Vinayagamoorthy (ACTC) |
| Trincomalee | 56,121 | 34.83% | 1 | 79.88% | R. Sampanthan (TULF) |
| Vanni | 41,950 | 44.39% | 3 | 46.77% | Selvam Adaikalanathan (TELO) Sivasakthy Ananthan (EPRLF) Irasa Kuhaneswaran (TELO) |
| National List | 1 | M. Sivasithamparam (TULF), died 5 June 2002 K. Thurairetnasingam (TULF) (replacesM. Sivasithamparam) | |||
| Total | 348,164 | 3.88% | 15 | 76.03% | |
| Source:"Parliamentary General Election 2001, Final District Results". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. | |||||
In the2 April 2004 parliamentary election in which theUnited People's Freedom Alliance led byPresident Kumaratunga came to power, theTamil National Alliance led byRajavarothiam Sampanthan won 6.84% of the popular vote and 22 out of 225 seats in theSri Lankan parliament.
Votes and seats won by TNA by electoral district
In the2010 Sri Lankan parliamentary election, in which theUnited People's Freedom Alliance , led byMahinda Rajapaksa, retained power, theTamil National Alliance, led byRajavarothiam Sampanthan, won 2.9% of the popular vote and 14 out of 225 seats in theSri Lankan parliament.
Votes and seats won by the TNA by electoral district
| Electoral District | Votes | % | Seats | Turnout | TNA MPs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ampara | 26,895 | 10.47% | 1 | 64.74% | Podiappuhamy Piyasena |
| Batticaloa | 66,235 | 36.67% | 3 | 58.56% | P. Ariyanethiran (ITAK) P. Selvarasa (ITAK) S. Yogeswaran (ITAK) |
| Jaffna | 65,119 | 43.85% | 5 | 23.33% | Suresh Premachandran (EPRLF) E. Saravanapavan (ITAK) Mavai Senathirajah (ITAK) S. Sritharan (ITAK) A. Vinayagamoorthy |
| Trincomalee | 33,268 | 23.81% | 1 | 62.20% | R. Sampanthan (ITAK) |
| Vanni | 41,673 | 38.96% | 3 | 43.89% | Selvam Adaikalanathan (TELO) Sivasakthy Ananthan (EPRLF) Vino Noharathalingam (TELO) |
| National List | 1 | M. A. Sumanthiran (ITAK) | |||
| Total | 233,190 | 2.90% | 14 | 61.26% | |
| Source:"Parliamentary General Election – 2010". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. | |||||
TheVarathar wing has restyled itself as thePadmanaba wing, after its murdered leader. It is registered as a political party with the Sri Lankan Department of Elections under the name ofPadmanaba Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front.[13] In 2008 it joined with other anti-Tamil Tiger parties to form theTamil Democratic National Alliance (later restyledDemocratic Tamil National Alliance) to contest provincial and local elections.
The wing's de facto leader (Varatharajah Perumal is in exile in India) Kandiah "Robert" Subathiran was murdered on 14 June 2003.[14] The wing's current General Secretary (and de facto leader) is Thirunavukkarasu Sritharan (Sridharan).[15]
There have been repeated allegations that various factions of the EPRLF, despite their claim to have given up violence, operate armed wings which have worked with the IPKF andSri Lankan Army. A group composed of former EPRLF cadres known asRazeek Group works along with theSri Lankan Army as aparamilitary group in activities against the Tamil Tigers in theBatticaloa region. They have also been accused of indulging in massacres, kidnappings and torture[16]
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