Sri Lankan Muslim party to contest alone

Sri Lanka's main Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), announced on Tuesday that it has decided to contest a key election in September independently and not with the government. The SLMC led by Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem will contest the elections in the Northern, North Western and Central provinces in September alone, an SLMC spokesman told Xinhua. The SLMC has been at odds with the government recently over moves to amend a key part of the constitution which mainly deals with minority issues. The Muslim party has also not been included in a parliamentary committee appointed to come up with proposals to make changes to the 13th amendment to the constitution. The SLMC feels the 13th amendment to the constitution should not change and should be implemented in full while several others in the government want parts of it removed, including clauses which allow the provincial administration to have authority over the police in the respective provinces. A day earlier the main minority Tamil party in Sri Lanka, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) announced that a former Supreme Court judge will be its candidate for the post of chief minister in the North. Former Supreme Court Judge C.V. Vigneswaran was nominated as the chief ministerial candidate for the Northern Provincial Council elections by the TNA despite some party members preferring another candidate. The TNA said that Vigneswaran is a much respected public personality and the party appealed to the voters in the Northern Province to wholeheartedly support him and all other candidates who will be nominated for the election.