Sri Lanka’s minority parties launch common platform for shared concerns

Published 13 July 2026 · finance

Prominent political parties representing Sri Lanka’s Tamil-speaking ethnic minorities have launched a platform to voice shared concerns around the pending political solution to the island’s

Prominent political parties representing Sri Lanka’s Tamil-speaking ethnic minorities have launched a platform to voice shared concerns around the pending political solution to the island’s national question and the persisting challenges to their communities’ land rights. Addressing a press conference in Colombo on Monday (July 13, 2026), leaders from political parties and alliances — currently in Opposition — representing Tamils of the north and east, Malaiyaha Tamils of the central and southern hill country, and Muslims across the island said the effort was aimed at foregrounding key issues facing the Tamil-speaking communities of Sri Lanka. Leaders of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC), Democratic Tamil Alliance (DTNA), Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), and the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) outlined three key areas of focus – introducing a new Constitution, early conduct of the long-pending provincial polls, and addressing conflicts surrounding people’s land. “Operating within the broad national framework of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and based on principles that the rule of law be upheld and human rights and democracy be protected, this platform seeks to voice concerns pertaining to the people who have given us a mandate to represent them,” said SLMC Leader and Member of Parliament Rauff Hakeem.

“This should not be interpreted as an anti-government or a pro-opposition stance,” added the MP, currently aligned to the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB, or United People’s Power). NPP manifesto Pointing to the ruling People’s Power (NPP) coalition’s August 2024 poll manifesto — subsequently adopted as the government’s Policy Framework — that promised the introduction of a new constitution, building on the constitutional reform process that began in 2015, and the conduct of Provincial Council elections within a year, the opposition leaders said the Anura Kumara Dissanayake administration was yet to move on either. “Based on these two pledges, we urge the government and the President to act on these two demands without any further delay,” said TPA Leader and legislator Mano Ganesan. Further, the government must take steps to resolve land grabs in the island’s north and east, carried out by state agencies including the Archaeology and Forest Departments as well as the military, the politicians said. “The question of land concerns all three groups,” said ACMC leader and MP Rishad Bathiudeen, referring to the north and east, where sizeable populations of Tamils and Muslims live, and the hill country that is home to Malaiyaha Tamils.