Chavakachcheri Electoral District

Chavakachcheri Electoral District was an electoral district of Sri Lanka between August 1947 and February 1989. The district was named after the town of Chavakachcheri in Jaffna District, Northern Province. Kilinochchi Electoral District was carved out of the southern part of the district in March 1960. The 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka introduced the proportional representation electoral system for electing members of Parliament. The existing 160 mainly single-member electoral districts were replaced with 22 multi-member electoral districts.^[1] Chavakachcheri electoral district was replaced by the Jaffna multi-member electoral district at the 1989 general elections, the first under the PR system, though Chavakachcheri continues to be a polling division of the multi-member electoral district.

Members of Parliament

Key

  ACTC   ITAK   TULF

Election		Member	Party	Term
	1947	V. Kumaraswamy	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	1947-1956
	1952
	1956	V. N. Navaratnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi	1956-1977
	1960 (March)
	1960 (July)
	1965
	1970
	1977		Tamil United Liberation Front	1977-1989

Elections

1947 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 1st parliamentary election held between 23 August 1947 and 20 September 1947:^[2]

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	V. Kumaraswamy	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Pair of Scales	11,813	85.51%
	C. R. Thambiah	United National Party	House	2,002	14.49%
Valid Votes				13,815	100.00%
Rejected Votes				186
Total Polled				14,001
Registered Electors				28,377
Turnout				49.34%

1952 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 2nd parliamentary election held between 24 May 1952 and 30 May 1952:^[3]

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	V. Kumaraswamy	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Pair of Scales	14,801	72.33%
	Arunachalam Namasivayam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	Bicycle	5,663	27.67%
Valid Votes				20,464	100.00%
Rejected Votes				168
Total Polled				20,632
Registered Electors				30,692
Turnout				67.22%

1956 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 3rd parliamentary election held between 5 April 1956 and 10 April 1956:^[5]

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	V. N. Navaratnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	15,952	64.77%
	V. Kumarasamy		Pair of Scales	8,677	35.23%
Valid Votes				24,629	100.00%
Rejected Votes				206
Total Polled				24,835
Registered Electors				35,922
Turnout				66.14%

1960 (March) Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 4th parliamentary election held on 19 March 1960:^[6]

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	V. N. Navaratnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	13,907	65.26%
	V. Kumaraswamy	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	6,930	32.52%
	A. S. Kanagaratnam	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	Key	473	2.22%
Valid Votes				21,310	100.00%
Rejected Votes				173
Total Polled				21,483
Registered Electors				25,822
Turnout				83.20%

1960 (July) Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 5th parliamentary election held on 20 July 1960:^[7]

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	V. N. Navaratnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	14,799	86.00%
	S. K. Thiravianayagam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	2,410	14.00%
Valid Votes				17,209	100.00%
Rejected Votes				135
Total Polled				17,344
Registered Electors				25,822
Turnout				67.17%

1965 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 6th parliamentary election held on 22 March 1965:^[8]

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	V. N. Navaratnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	16,316	69.41%
	M. Sivananthan	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	7,191	30.59%
Valid Votes				23,507	100.00%
Rejected Votes				220
Total Polled				23,727
Registered Electors				30,452
Turnout				77.92%

1970 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 7th parliamentary election held on 27 May 1970:^[9]

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	V. N. Navaratnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	15,473	54.49%
	V. Kumaraswamy	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	12,921	45.51%
Valid Votes				28,394	100.00%
Rejected Votes				84
Total Polled				28,478
Registered Electors				33,072
Turnout				86.11%

1977 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 8th parliamentary election held on 21 July 1977:^[10]

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	V. N. Navaratnam	Tamil United Liberation Front	Sun	20,028	63.27%
	V. Kumaraswamy	Independent	Pair of Scales	10,810	34.15%
	S. P. Mailvaganam		Eye	419	1.32%
	Kandiah Asai Jerome	Independent	Omnibus	289	0.91%
	Sathasivam Nadarajah		Lamp	111	0.35%
Valid Votes				31,657	100.00%
Rejected Votes				91
Total Polled				31,748
Registered Electors				36,959
Turnout				85.90%

V. N. Navaratnam and all other TULF MPs boycotted Parliament from the middle of 1983 for a number of reasons: they were under pressure from Sri Lankan Tamil militants not to stay in Parliament beyond their normal six-year term; the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka required them to swear an oath unconditionally renouncing support for a separate state; and the Black July riots in which up to 3,000 Tamils were murdered by Sinhalese mobs. After three months of absence, Navaratnam forfeited his seat in Parliament on 22 October 1983.^[11]

References & footnotes

1. "The Electoral System". Parliament of Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 2010-11-27.
2. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1947" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24.
3. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1952" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24.
4. Also known as the Federal Party
5. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1956" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24.
6. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1960-03-19" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-07-12.
7. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1960-07-20" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24.
8. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1965" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-07-13.
9. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1970" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-09.
10. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1977" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17.
11. Wickramasinghe, Wimal (18 January 2008). "Saga of crossovers, expulsions and resignations etc. Referendum for extention [sic] of Parliament". The Island, Sri Lanka.^{[dead link‍]}