<p>Colombo: Pakiyaselvam Ariyanethran was named on Thursday as the common candidate by a cluster of <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/sri-lanka">Sri Lankan</a> Tamil parties, but without the main party, ITAK, for the September 21 presidential election.</p>.<p>Pakiyaselvam Ariyanethran, 69, is a former Member of Parliament. He was named in the northern capital of Jaffna earlier in the morning, Tamil party sources confirmed here.</p>.Rajapaksa scion Namal enters Presidential race in Sri Lanka.<p>The leaders of north and east-based Tamil parties TELO, PLOTE, TPA, TNP and EPRLF with a civil group named Tamil People’s Congress Association had signed an agreement in mid-July to field the common candidate.</p>.<p>However, the main Tamil party, ITAK, which heads the umbrella group Tamil National Alliance (TNA), was not a party to the agreement.</p>.<p>ITAK’s leading member M A Sumanthiran had dismissed the idea as a bad decision as it would weaken the Tamil minority position at the election.</p>.<p>In addition to fielding Tamil candidates at several past presidential elections, the Tamils from the north and east regions have aligned historically with the opposition candidate.</p>.<p>So far, some 22 candidates have paid deposits to contest with nomination that closes on August 15. Namal Rajapaksa, the 38-year-old heir to the Rajapaksa dynasty, was on Wednesday named as the SLPP candidate for the presidential election.</p>.<p>Namal's entry made the election a four-cornered contest. Besides President Wickremesinghe, the main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and the Marxist JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake are already in the fray.</p>.<p>Sri Lanka has a mixed demography and Tamils, both ethnic Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian-origin Tamils. They reside mostly in north and eastern Sri Lanka. PTI CORR NPK NPK NPK</p>
<p>Colombo: Pakiyaselvam Ariyanethran was named on Thursday as the common candidate by a cluster of <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/sri-lanka">Sri Lankan</a> Tamil parties, but without the main party, ITAK, for the September 21 presidential election.</p>.<p>Pakiyaselvam Ariyanethran, 69, is a former Member of Parliament. He was named in the northern capital of Jaffna earlier in the morning, Tamil party sources confirmed here.</p>.Rajapaksa scion Namal enters Presidential race in Sri Lanka.<p>The leaders of north and east-based Tamil parties TELO, PLOTE, TPA, TNP and EPRLF with a civil group named Tamil People’s Congress Association had signed an agreement in mid-July to field the common candidate.</p>.<p>However, the main Tamil party, ITAK, which heads the umbrella group Tamil National Alliance (TNA), was not a party to the agreement.</p>.<p>ITAK’s leading member M A Sumanthiran had dismissed the idea as a bad decision as it would weaken the Tamil minority position at the election.</p>.<p>In addition to fielding Tamil candidates at several past presidential elections, the Tamils from the north and east regions have aligned historically with the opposition candidate.</p>.<p>So far, some 22 candidates have paid deposits to contest with nomination that closes on August 15. Namal Rajapaksa, the 38-year-old heir to the Rajapaksa dynasty, was on Wednesday named as the SLPP candidate for the presidential election.</p>.<p>Namal's entry made the election a four-cornered contest. Besides President Wickremesinghe, the main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and the Marxist JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake are already in the fray.</p>.<p>Sri Lanka has a mixed demography and Tamils, both ethnic Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian-origin Tamils. They reside mostly in north and eastern Sri Lanka. PTI CORR NPK NPK NPK</p>