Point Pedro Electoral District

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

Members of Parliament

Key

  ACTC   Communist Party   ITAK   TULF

Election		Member	Party	Term
	1947	T. Ramalingam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	1947-1952
	1952			1952-1956
	1956	P. Kandiah	Communist Party of Ceylon	1956-1960
	1960 (March)	K. Thurairatnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi	1960-1960
	1960 (July)			1960-1965
	1965			1965-1970
	1970			1970-1977
	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	%
	T. Ramalingam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Pair of Scales	10,396	43.51%
	S. "Jeyam" Tharamakulasingham	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	Eye	6,108	25.56%
	V. Suppiah	Independent	Spoon	3,897	16.31%
	P. Kandiah	Communist Party	Hand	3,492	14.62%
Valid Votes				23,893	100.00%
Rejected Votes				446
Total Polled				24,339
Registered Electors				41,682
Turnout				58.39%

1952 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	T. Ramalingam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Eye	11,609	41.54%
	P. Kandiah	Communist Party	Bicycle	8,617	30.83%
	K. C. Nadarajah	Independent	Hand	5,512	19.72%
	Coomaraswamy Balasingham	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	Wheel	2,208	7.90%
Valid Votes				27,946	100.00%
Rejected Votes				494
Total Polled				28,440
Registered Electors				43,219
Turnout				65.80%

1956 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 3rd parliamentary election held between 5 April 1956 and 10 April 1956:^[4]

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	P. Kandiah	Communist Party	Star	14,381	50.81%
	Murugesu Sivasithamparam	Independent	Umbrella	8,064	28.49%
	K. Thurairatnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	5,859	20.70%
Valid Votes				28,304	100.00%
Rejected Votes				317
Total Polled				28,621
Registered Electors				44,603
Turnout				64.17%

1960 (March) Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	K. Thurairatnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	5,679	40.34%
	N. Nadarajah	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	2,521	17.91%
	T. Jayadevan	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	Key	2,101	14.92%
	K. Senathirajah	Communist Party	Star	1,552	11.02%
	S. Sundaralingam	Independent	Ship	1,226	8.71%
	S. Kandiah		Sun	1,000	7.10%
Valid Votes				14,079	100.00%
Rejected Votes				152
Total Polled				14,231
Registered Electors				19,408
Turnout				73.33%

1960 (July) Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	K. Thurairatnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	8,226	67.46%
	N. Nadarajah	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	3,968	32.54%
Valid Votes				12,194	100.00%
Rejected Votes				129
Total Polled				12,323
Registered Electors				19,408
Turnout				63.49%

1965 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	K. Thurairatnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	7,564	46.24%
	N. Nadarajah	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	6,614	40.43%
	K. Motilal Nehru	Communist Party	Star	2,180	13.33%
Valid Votes				16,358	100.00%
Rejected Votes				94
Total Polled				16,452
Registered Electors				22,972
Turnout				71.62%

1970 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	K. Thurairatnam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	9,217	48.50%
	N. Nadarajah	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	8,902	46.85%
	P. Kanagarasa		Pair of Scales	579	3.05%
	A. Visagaratnam		Cockerel	305	1.61%
Valid Votes				19,003	100.00%
Rejected Votes				86
Total Polled				19,089
Registered Electors				24,006
Turnout				79.52%

1977 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	K. Thurairatnam	Tamil United Liberation Front	Sun	12,989	55.77%
	N. Nadarajah	Independent	Umbrella	6,419	27.56%
	M. P. Veeravagu	Independent	Pair of Scales	3,065	13.16%
	K. T. Rajasingham		Eye	614	2.64%
	K. S. Muthukumarasamy		Ship	204	0.88%
Valid Votes				23,291	100.00%
Rejected Votes				75
Total Polled				23,366
Registered Electors				28,447
Turnout				82.14%

K. Thurairatnam 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, Thurairatnam forfeited his seat in Parliament on 5 January 1984.^[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. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1956" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24.
5. Also known as the Federal Party
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 25 April 2011.

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