Heads up for women at NPC polls

http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-39357-news-detail-heads-up-for-women-at-npc-polls.html

An independent group comprising mostly women candidates who were affected by the war will be contesting the forthcoming Northern Provincial polls.

The group comprising 19 candidates is led by Thambipillai Iruthaya Rani. Sixteen of the 19 contestants are women. The group filed their nominations at the District Secretariat, Jaffna, on Thursday (1).

Commenting on their participation, the independent group said, the plight of the widows in the North was pathetic. “We are therefore striving to highlight the difficulties of the war-affected widows in the North,” one of the candidates, said.

Meanwhile, the political observers in the North said the plethora of issues that women and children, affected by war have been facing and the difficulties they are being subjected to, should be brought to the fore.

As such, the participation of the independent group of women affected by war is a crucial aspect in the polls for the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), political observers said.

Meanwhile, election campaigns in Jaffna are expected to begin this week. As the Nallur Kanthaswamy Temple festival, which begins on 12 August and will go on for nearly a month, is believed to be a crowd puller, election rallies in the city of Jaffna and the suburbs are expected to be held without much fanfare, sources said.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has started its campaign with pocket meetings in various parts of Jaffna.