New TNA National List nominee?

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has decided not to re-nominate former National List MP M.K.Eelaventhan to be reappointed as an MP after he lost his Parliamentary seat earlier this month for staying away from the Legislature for over three months. Instead, the TNA is to nominate a Muslim member to fill the seat and two names - one a TNA candidate from the Trincomalee district, who was defeated at the 2004 general election or the other a former National List nominee from Jaffna - will be Mr. Eelaventhan’s successor.

One of the nominees is a lawyer while the other contested the Trincomalee UC at the last local government elections and won. But a few weeks later, claming his life was under threat, he stopped attending the UC meetings. TNA sources said one reason that Mr. Eelaventhan was not being re-nominated was because he stayed away from a major part of the crucial month-long Budget debate and returned only during the last week.

The Secretary General of Parliament has informed the Elections Commissioner that a seat has fallen vacant in Parliament and the TNA now has to send the name of its nominee to the Commissioner to be gazetted prior to his appointment.

Mr. Eelaventhan who had been away in Canada for over three months was told when he came to Parliament on December 14 - the day of the final vote on the Budget-that he has lost his seat as he had not got the necessary leave approved to be away for longer than the three months allowed for MPs to stay way from sittings.