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Catholic votes should be given to Catholics .....
Catholic Church tells BBC....
A news report was broadcast over the Sinhala web site BBC Sandeshaya that the Catholic Church has urged the Catholic community to cast their vote for Catholic candidates at the forthcoming West and South Provincial Council elections scheduled to beheld on March 29th.
It is mentioned that this is the first occasion that the Catholic Church is making such a request from Catholic devotees.
It is understood that the Media Spokesman for the Colombo Archdiocese Revd. Father Benedict Joseph has expressed this over Sandeshaya. It was said that because a tendency to refrain from using their franchise has surfaced, this request has been made.
General Secretary of the United National Party, Tissa Attanayaka has alleged that the stance of the Catholic Church is to move towards groupism and what Foreign Minister Naomal Perera had said was that it is customary for the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka to express its stance during election-time to its devotees.
In the same Sandeshaya news report this decision of the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka has been viewed by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna as an obstacle to religious harmony.