| Minister of Social Services and Eelam People’s Democratic Party General Secretary Douglas Devananda has decided to contest as a Chief Ministerial candidate at the upcoming Northern Provincial Council elections.
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| Devananda |
Mr. Devananda told the Sunday Times that he decided to contest for the Chief Minister’s post as he felt that he could to a better service to the Tamil community than by serving as a minister in the central government.
“We have asked the President to conduct all the local government elections in the province before going for the provincial elections. We hope that the remaining local polls will be before the end of the year,” he said.
“We are expecting that the elections for the Northern Provincial Council will be held in January,” he said. He said his motive in contesting the elections as a chief ministerial candidate was to fill the vacuum in the Tamil political leadership.
Mr. Devananda has been in the Cabinet since 1994, except during the UNP regime of 2001 to 2004. |
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