Sri Lanka's prominent Tamil party ITAK or Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Wednesday confirmed the party's support for the common candidate of opposition parties, former chief of defense staff General (Retd) Sarath Fonseka at the forthcoming presidential election to be held on Jan. 26, 2010. Leader of the TNA, parliamentarian R. Sampanthan told reporters the party's support for Gen. Fonseka is conditional. The party has taken the decision to support Fonseka on Jan. 4 and it is officially confirmed on Wednesday. However, a legislator from TNA M. K. Sivagilingam will contest the presidential election as an independent candidate. The party has 20 seats at the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament and they are representing the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. Earlier December, the TNA had split into three factions on the matter as the party was unable to reach an unanimous decision on whom to support. R. Sampanthan and another TNA legislator were engaged in discussions on extending their support to Gen. Fonseka. The TNA's northern Vanni district parliamentarian Shivanathan Kishore and two other TNA legislators were in favor of supporting incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and one legislator is contesting the poll as an independent candidate. President Rajapaksa called the presidential election two years ahead of schedule, aiming at capitalizing on the government troops ' military victory against Tamil Tiger rebels early this year and TNA has the majority of Tamil vote bank in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. 