REFUGEE

A legislator from Sri Lanka's main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Tuesday handed over his deposit to the Election Department for contesting the forthcoming presidential election to be held on Jan. 26, 2010.

M. K. Sivajilingam told reporters that he will contest the election as an independent candidate.

The TNA, having 20 seats at the 225-member parliament, has split into three factions on the matter as the party was unable to reach an unanimous decision on whom to support.

TNA leader R. Sampanthan and another TNA legislator are engaged in discussions on extending their support to the common candidate of opposition parties former Chief of Defense Staff General Sarath Fonseka.

The TNA's northern Vanni district parliamentarian Shivanathan Kishore and two other TNA legislators are in favor of supporting incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Up to now 10 candidates including Rajapakse and Fonseka have handed over their deposit to the elections department.

The Election Department is expected to accept the nominations for the election on Dec. 17.

Rajapakse called the election two years ahead of schedule aimed at capitalizing on the government troops' military victory against Tamil Tiger rebels early this year.