‘Federal system will not divide Sri Lanka’

“Federalism is an arrangement to keep the country together, not to divide. There are many examples in other countries as to how federalism had not divided countries,” Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran said. 

Speaking to reporters in the northern town of Vavuniya on Friday, the Tamil chief minister said people in the country’s south must study federalism to reach conclusions. He said the minority Tamils advocate federal arrangements for the rest of the seven provinces too. 

Wigneswaran, a former Supreme Court judge, has been under fire in the south after the adoption of a resolution in his northern provincial councils calling for a federal solution to the north and east provinces. 

The resolution adopted by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) aims to have the federal solution included in the current constitution-making process. The government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has launched a process to formulate a new constitution replacing the 1978 statute.