Tamil Voters in Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election

• Northern Tamil voters in Sri Lanka are divided in the presidential election, with some backing Sinhalese candidates and others supporting a Tamil candidate.
• The “Tamil common candidate” P. Ariyanethiran, backed by political and civil society groups, is unlikely to win due to the electoral map’s numeric reality.
• The Sinhalese majority, constituting around 75% of the country, has been a bloc vote for two decades, with the main Tamil party representing the north and east consistently supporting the chief challenger of the Rajapaksas.
• The election is the first in 20 years not dominated by a Rajapaksa surname, with three candidates at the forefront: incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition politicians Sajith Premadasa, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
• Critics argue that abandoning pragmatic negotiation with the southern leadership would further isolate Tamils and weaken their bargaining power.
• The northern Tamil polity is in a state of disarray, with prominent leaders taking poll positions ranging from backing a southern candidate to boycotting the polls.
• The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), led by the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), has collapsed, with internal divisions evident in the conflicting positions aired by its members.
• Some voters, especially youth, are disillusioned, questioning how they can vote as a Sri Lankan when discriminatory actions remind them of their Tamil identity.