Jaffna Electoral District (1947–1989)

Jaffna Electoral District was an electoral district of Sri Lanka between August 1947 and February 1989. The district was named after the city of Jaffna in Jaffna District, Northern Province. 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] Jaffna electoral district was replaced by the Jaffna multi-member electoral district at the 1989 general elections, the first under the PR system, though Jaffna continues to be a polling division of the multi-member electoral district.

Members of Parliament

Key

  Independent   All Ceylon Tamil Congress   ITAK   TULF

Election		Member	Party	Term
	1947	G. G. Ponnambalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	1947-1960
	1952
	1956
	1960 (March)	Alfred Duraiappah	Independent	1960-1965
	1960 (July)
	1965	G. G. Ponnambalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	1965-1970
	1970	C. X. Martyn	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi	1970-1977
	1977	V. Yogeswaran	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	%
	G. G. Ponnambalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	14,324	73.28%
	Arunachalam Mahadeva	United National Party	Elephant	5,224	26.72%
Valid Votes				19,548	100.00%
Rejected Votes				133
Total Polled				19,681
Registered Electors				42,546
Turnout				46.26%

1952 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	G. G. Ponnambalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Umbrella	12,726	60.48%
	E. M. V. Naganathan	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	Hand	8,317	39.52%
Valid Votes				21,043	100.00%
Rejected Votes				88
Total Polled				21,131
Registered Electors				29,489
Turnout				71.66%

1956 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	G. G. Ponnambalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	8,914	40.46%
	E. M. V. Naganathan	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	7,173	32.56%
	M. Karthigasan	Communist Party	Star	3,239	14.70%
	Arulambalam Visuvanathan	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	Key	2,703	12.27%
Valid Votes				22,029	100.00%
Rejected Votes				149
Total Polled				22,178
Registered Electors				34,804
Turnout				63.72%

1960 (March) Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	Alfred Duraiappah	Independent	Sun	6,201	35.68%
	G. G. Ponnambalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	5,312	30.56%
	S. Kathiravelupillai	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	5,101	29.35%
	Arulambalam Visuvanathan	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	Key	767	4.41%
Valid Votes				17,381	100.00%
Rejected Votes				92
Total Polled				17,473
Registered Electors				24,299
Turnout				71.91%

1960 (July) Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	Alfred Duraiappah	Independent	Bicycle	6,313	35.13%
	G. G. Ponnambalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Eye	6,015	33.47%
	S. Kathiravelupillai	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	5,644	31.40%
Valid Votes				17,972	100.00%
Rejected Votes				84
Total Polled				18,056
Registered Electors				25,299
Turnout				74.31%

1965 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	G. G. Ponnambalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	9,350	42.37%
	C. X. Martyn	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	6,800	30.81%
	Alfred Duraiappah		Pair of Scales	5,918	26.82%
Valid Votes				22,068	100.00%
Rejected Votes				73
Total Polled				22,141
Registered Electors				28,473
Turnout				77.76%

1970 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	C. X. Martyn	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[4]	House	8,848	35.59%
	Alfred Duraiappah	Independent	Umbrella	8,792	35.36%
	G. G. Ponnambalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	7,222	29.05%
Valid Votes				24,862	100.00%
Rejected Votes				76
Total Polled				24,938
Registered Electors				31,214
Turnout				79.89%

1977 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	V. Yogeswaran	Tamil United Liberation Front	Sun	16,251	51.26%
	Kumar Ponnambalam	Independent	Tree	6,960	24.25%
	A. L. Abraham		Pair of Scales	4,349	15.15%
	C. X. Martyn		Umbrella	900	3.14%
	A. G. Rajasooriar		Chair	164	0..57%
	A. Tharmalingham	Independent	Ship	77	0.27%
Valid Votes				28,701	100.00%
Rejected Votes				78
Total Polled				28,779
Registered Electors				34,865
Turnout				82.54%

V. Yogeswaran 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, Yogeswaran 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. Archived from the original on 17 June 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2011.