North Eastern Provincial Council election, 1988

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File:North Eastern Sri Lanka districts.png
North Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, 1988-2006

Provincial Council elections were held on 19 November 1988 to elect members to Sri Lanka’s North Eastern Provincial Council.

Background

The Indo-Lanka Accord signed on 29 July 1987 required the Sri Lankan government to devolve powers to the provinces and, in the interim, to merge the Northern and Eastern provinces into one administrative unit.[1]

On 14 November 1987 the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act No 42 of 1987, establishing provincial councils.[2][3] On September 2 and 8 1988 President Jayewardene issued proclamations enabling the Northern and Eastern provinces to be one administrative unit administered by one elected Council.[4]

The first elections for provincial councils took place on 28 April 1988 in North Central, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, and Uva provinces.[5] Elections in the newly merged North Eastern Province were held on 19 November 1988.

Results

Overall

Party Eastern Northern Total
Votes % Seats Votes % Seats Votes % Seats
Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front 215,230 55.00% 17 24 215,230 55.00% 41
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress 168,038 42.94% 17 168,038 42.94% 17
United National Party 8,056 2.06% 1 8,056 2.06% 1
Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front 12 12
Total 391,324 100.00% 35 36 391,324 100.00% 71
Source:[6]

Ampara District

Party Votes per Polling Division Total Votes % Seats
Ampara Kalmunai Pottuvil Sammanthurai
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress 40 26,441 34,972 28,983 90,436 63.03% 9
Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front 20 12,626 25,140 7,968 45,754 31.89% 4
United National Party 5,338 111 1,704 147 7,300 5.09% 1
Valid Votes 5,398 39,178 61,816 37,098 143,490 100.00% 14
Rejected Votes 219 460 932 1,020 2,631
Total Polled 5,617 39,638 62,748 38,118 146,121
Registered Electors 94,068 44,075 82,833 44,975 265,951
Turnout (%) 5.97% 89.93% 75.75% 84.75% 54.94%
Source:[6]

Batticaloa District

Party Votes per Polling Division Total Votes % Seats
Batticaloa Kalkudah Paddiruppu
Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front 46,006 32,546 48,394 126,946 74.76% 8
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress 29,594 12,331 175 42,100 24.79% 3
United National Party 476 194 86 756 0.45% 0
Valid Votes 76,076 45,071 48,655 169,802 100.00% 11
Rejected Votes 1,495 629 610 2,734
Total Polled 77,571 45,700 49,265 172,536
Registered Electors 100,536 60,288 56,452 217,276
Turnout (%) 77.16% 75.80% 87.27% 79.41%
Source:[6]

Jaffna District

The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front won all 19 seats uncontested.[6]

Kilinochchi District

The Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front won all 3 seats uncontested.[6]

Mannar District

The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front won all 5 seats uncontested.[6]

Mullaitivu District

The Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front won all 5 seats uncontested.[6]

Trincomalee District

Party Votes per Polling Division Total Votes % Seats
Mutur Seruwila Trincomalee
Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front 12,311 4,840 25,379 42,530 54.50% 5
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress 24,006 3,764 7,732 35,502 45.50% 5
Valid Votes 36,317 8,604 33,111 78,032 100.00% 10
Rejected Votes 810 295 1,272 2,377
Total Polled 37,127 8,899 34,383 80,409
Registered Electors 48,570 47,693 56,026 152,289
Turnout (%) 76.44% 18.66% 61.37% 52.80%
Source:[6]

Vavuniya District

The Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front won all 4 seats uncontested.[6]

Aftermath

On 10 December 1988 Annamalai Varatharajah Perumal of the EPRLF became the first Chief Minister of the North Eastern Provincial Council.[7]

On 1 March 1990, just as the Indian Peace Keeping Force were preparing to withdraw from Sri Lanka, Permual moved a motion in the North Eastern Provincial Council declaraing an independent Eelam.[8] President Premadasa reacted to Permual's UDI by dissolving the provincial council and imposing direct rule on the province.

On 14 July 2006, after a long campaign against the merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, a Sinhalese nationalist political party, filed three separate petitions with the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka requesting a separate Provincial Council for the East.[4] On 16 October 2006 the Supreme Court ruled that the proclamations issued by President Jayewardene in September 1988 were null and void and had no legal effect.[4] The North Eastern Province was formally demerged into the Northern and Eastern provinces on 1 January 2007.

The north-east of Sri Lanka was ruled directly from Colombo until May 2008 when elections were held in the demerged Eastern Province. However, the Northern Province continues to be ruled from Colombo. More than 20 years after the introduction of provincial councils the people of the Northern Province remain the only ones in Sri Lanka who have never a cast a vote to elect their provincial council. This is despite the fact that the provincial councils were only established to satisfy the demands for autonomy by the Tamils, the majority of whom live in the Northern Province.

References

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