Hundreds took to the streets of Vavuniya on Monday, and around half the town's businesses pulled down their shutters, to condemn the removal of the city's elected mayor, S. Kandeepan, from office by the Northern Province's centrally appointed governor, in a decision protesters denounced as the work of an "assassin of democracy".
The demonstration began at Pandaravanniyan Square before marching along Mannar Road to gather near Gamini Maha Vidyalayam, where protesters chanted against the decision of the governor, Nagalingam Vethanayahan, who through an Extraordinary Gazette issued on 19 June stripped Kandeepan of both the mayoralty and his seat on the Vavuniya Municipal Council.
A separate gazette the same day removed the Chavakachcheri Urban Council vice chairman, S. Kishore, from office and his council membership, a move that had already shut down Chavakachcheri in a hartal on Friday.
Protesters carried placards accusing the governor of undermining democracy and demanded that the investigation report cited as the basis for the mayor's removal be made public.
Slogans called on the authorities to "stop the assassin of democracy", to "respect the people's mandate", and to "release the corruption investigation report", while others told the governor not to "act as an agent of the JVP", a reference to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna that leads the governing National People's Power.
The NPP narrowly failed to secure a majority on the Vavuniya council at last year's local elections, and one placard asked whether the removal was part of a plan by the JVP-aligned governor to engineer a JVP-led municipal council in the Tamil city, capturing through executive action a body the party had been unable to win at the ballot box.
Another accused the governor of moving against the Vavuniya council while ignoring the Thaiyiddy land issue in the North.
The protest drew the members of parliament Rishad Bathiudeen of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress and P. Sathiyalingam of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi, the former MPs Sivasakthy Anandan, Vino Noharathalingam and Muththu Mohammedu, former Northern Provincial Council members, local government representatives and members of the public.
Businesses across Vavuniya town joined the action, with organisers having appealed to traders to keep their outlets closed until midday. Around half of the town's establishments shut for some three hours on Monday morning in support of the demonstration, according to the organisers, while the rest continued to trade.
The removals form part of a wider pattern of friction around Governor Vethanayahan, who is also facing accusations of executive interference in the judiciary after the abrupt transfer of a Jaffna High Court judge weeks after his appointment, and who has the power, as a presidential nominee, to override the elected institutions of the North-East.
For Tamils, the episode has revived long-standing objections to a system under which an unelected appointee can unseat the representatives the people themselves chose.
