Sritharan elected ITAK leader

Jaffna District MP S. Sritharan was yesterday elected the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) leader with a majority of 47 votes. He polled 184 votes while his contender MA Sumanthiran could secure only 137 votes. It was the first-ever internal contest the ITAK held in its 75-year history to elect its leader. On all previous occasions, the ITAK leader was elected by consensus.

Of the 325 members of the ITAK General Committee and 50 other members of the Special Central Committee, 332 were eligible to vote to elect a new leader for the party. Of them only 321 voted yesterday.

The election was held at the Trincomalee Town Hall auditorium with three main contenders, namely Sritharn, Sumanthiran and former Batticaloa District MP S. Yogeswaran vying for the post.

The outgoing leader of the ITAK R Sampanthan was not present yesterday due to ill-health. Among those who voted yesterday were 43 CC members of the ITAK and nine additional voters named by the outdoing party leader and 280 other electoral representative members – Jaffna (75), Kilinochchi (20), Mullaitivu (25), Mannar (25), Vavuniya (20), Trincomalee (30), Batticaloa (50) and Ampara (35).

The newly-elected ITAK leader was scheduled to visit the LTTE war memorial in Kanakapuram, Kilinochchi, at 5.30 pm yesterday. Thereafter he was expected to attend a welcome ceremony organised at the Nagar Vinayagar Kovil of the Lord Ganesh at Kilinochchi.

Just before the election, Yogeswaran called on his supporters and asked them to vote for Sritharan.

Born on 08 Dec., 1968, Sritharan received his education at Jaffna Hindu College. He entered the University of Jaffna, and after his graduation, he became a teacher and worked as a principal from 1990 to 2010, when he was elected to Parliament.