Kopay Electoral District

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

Members of Parliament

Key

   All Ceylon Tamil Congress      Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi      Tamil United Liberation Front   

Election		Member	Party	Term
	1947	C. Vanniasingam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	1947-1952
	1952		Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi	1952-1956
	1956			1956-1960
	1960 (March)	M. Balasundaram		1960-1960
	1960 (July)			1960-1965
	1965	S. Kathiravelupillai		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	%
	C. Vanniasingam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Elephant	9,619	58.90%
	S. Rasaratnam	United National Party	Hand	5,266	32.24%
	C. Ragunathan	Independent	Cart Wheel	1,447	8.86%
Valid Votes				16,332	100.00%
Rejected Votes				276
Total Polled				16,608
Registered Electors				32,999
Turnout				50.33%

1952 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	C. Vanniasingam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi [4]	Key	9,410	44.89%
	C. Arulampalam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Elephant	9,200	43.88%
	R. R. Dharmaratnam		Star	2,354	11.23%
Valid Votes				20,964	100.00%
Rejected Votes				283
Total Polled				21,247
Registered Electors				32,903
Turnout				64.57%

1956 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	C. Vanniasingam	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi [4]	House	12,804	53.83%
	C. Arulampalam		Umbrella	10,983	46.17%
Valid Votes				23,787	100.00%
Rejected Votes				304
Total Polled				24,091
Registered Electors				34,465
Turnout				69.90%

C. Vanniasingam died on 17 September 1959.

1960 (March) Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	M. Balasundaram	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi [4]	House	10,279	48.63%
	T. Gunaratnam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	4,936	23.35%
	S. K. Nallathamby		Sun	3,494	16.53%
	K. V. S. Shanmuganathan	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	Key	1,777	8.41%
	S. P. Nadarajah	Communist Party	Star	458	2.17%
	S. Sivasubramaniam		Cockerel	192	0.91%
Valid Votes				21,136	100.00%
Rejected Votes				351
Total Polled				21,487
Registered Electors				27,858
Turnout				77.13%

1960 (July) Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	M. Balasundaram	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi [4]	House	12,088	67.64%
	T. Gunaratnam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	5,782	32.36%
Valid Votes				17,870	100.00%
Rejected Votes				188
Total Polled				18,058
Registered Electors				27,858
Turnout				64.82%

1965 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	S. Kathiravelupillai	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi [4]	House	12,339	51.93%
	T. Gunaratnam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	8,230	34.64%
	M. Thurairajah	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	Key	2,625	11.05%
	M. Balasundaram		Umbrella	568	2.39%
Valid Votes				23,762	100.00%
Rejected Votes				361
Total Polled				24,123
Registered Electors				33,091
Turnout				72.90%

1970 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	S. Kathiravelupillai	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi [4]	House	16,428	55.85%
	T. Gunaratnam	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	11,288	38.38%
	M. S. Kanagasundaram		Pair of Scales	983	3.34%
	M. Thurairajah	Sri Lanka Freedom Party	Hand	713	2.42%
Valid Votes				29,412	100.00%
Rejected Votes				189
Total Polled				29,601
Registered Electors				37,464
Turnout				79.01%

1977 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	S. Kathiravelupillai	Tamil United Liberation Front	Sun	25,840	77.20%
	V. Nadarajah	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	Key	3,487	10.42%
	S. Jeganathan	United National Party	Elephant	2,699	8.06%
	V. T. Jeyadevan	Independent	Ship	1,444	4.31%
Valid Votes				33,470	100.00%
Rejected Votes				149
Total Polled				33,619
Registered Electors				41,824
Turnout				80.38%

S. Kathiravelupillai died on 31 March 1981. His replacement M. Alalasundaram was sworn in on 23 July 1981. ^[11]

M. Alalasundaram 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, Alalasundaram forfeited his seat in Parliament on 5 January 1984. ^[12]

M. Alalasundaram was murdered on 2 September 1985. ^[13]

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 2009-12-09.
3. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1952" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-09.
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 2009-12-09.
6. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1960-03-19" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-09.
7. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1960-07-20" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-09.
8. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1965" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-09.
9. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1970" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-09. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
10. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1977" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17.
11. KT Rajasingham (16 February 2002). "Chapter 27 - Horsewhip Amirthalingham". SRI LANKA: THE UNTOLD STORY. Asia Times. Archived from the original on 22 June 2002. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
12. Wickramasinghe, Wimal (18 January 2008). "Saga of crossovers, expulsions and resignations etc. Referendum for extention[sic] of Parliament". The Island, Sri Lanka.
13. KT Rajasingham. "Chapter 33: India shows its hand". SRI LANKA: THE UNTOLD STORY. Asia Times. Archived from the original on 7 April 2002. Retrieved 23 March 2010.