Jaffna Municipal Council
Encyclopedia
Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) is the local authority
for the city of Jaffna
in northern Sri Lanka
. JMC is responsible for providing a variety of local public services including roads, sanitation, drains, housing, libraries, public parks and recreational facilities. It has 23 members elected using the open list
proportional representation system.
Jaffna didn't have an elected local government for sporadic periods, this was due to various reasons. Aljazeera, the Asiafoundation and the Daily Mirror attribute this to civil war
; Reuters
and the US State Department attribute this to calls for election boycotts by the LTTE (enforced with brutal reprisals for non compliance); the Taipei Times
and the BBC
attribute this to area coming under LTTE control and the Tamilnet
attribute it to The Sri Lankan government's suspension of all local government in the north
and east
of the country in 1983 using Emergency Regulations.
held on 29 January 1998:
The normal life term of Sri Lankan local government bodies is four years. The life term of JMC expired in February 2002 but the central government extended this by another year, as the law allows. Elections should have been held when the extension expired in February 2003 but in January 2003, following a request from the Tamil National Alliance
, the central government instead dissolved JMC and instead put in place special commissions to administer the local areas. JMC continued to be administered by these special commissions until the 2009 elections.
held on 8 August 2009:
The following candidates were elected:
Mudiyappu Remediyas (TNA), 4,223 preference votes (pv); Thurairajah Illango alias Regan (UPFA-EPDP), 3,387 pv; Mohamed Sultan Moulavi Sufian (Ind 1), 1,779 pv; Anthonypillai Mariamma (TNA), 1,678 pv; Murugiah Komahan (UPFA-EPDP), 1,573 pv; Karthigesu Nadarasa Kanagaratnam (TNA), 1,442 pv; Manuel Mangaleswaran alias Nesapriyan (UPFA-EPDP), 1,394 pv; Meerasahib Mohamed Rameez (UPFA-ACMC), 1,338 pv; Patkunam Yogeswary (UPFA-EPDP), 1,250 pv; Pilevian Expedith Cracian (UPFA-EPDP), 1,166 pv; Nadarajah Rajathevan (TNA), 1,118 pv; Benjamin Jacob (TNA), 1,039 pv; Mohamed Merasahib Mustafa (UPFA-ACMC), 1,029 pv; Manikkam Kanagaraththinam (UPFA-EPDP), 1,025 pv; Ariyakuddy Paramsothy (TNA), 1,007 pv; Sutharsingh Vijiyakanth (UPFA-EPDP), 989 pv; Asker Roomi Badurtheen (UPFA-ACMC), 979 pv; Ajmaeen Asfar (UPFA-ACMC), 960 pv; Suvikaran Nishanthan (UPFA-EPDP), 896 pv; Anthonipillai Cilapotasious (UPFA-EPDP), 889 pv; Mariyakorattry Anton (TNA), 881 pv; Arulappu Korneliyas (TNA), 826 pv; and Veerasingham Anandasangaree (TULF) 424 pv.
Patkunam Yogeswary (UPFA-EPDP) and Thurairajah Illango (UPFA-EPDP) were appointed Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively. Mudiyappu Remediyas of the TNA was appointed as the Opposition Leader of the Council but he crossed over to the UPFA in June 2011.
Local government in Sri Lanka
Local government is the third and lowest level of government in Sri Lanka - after the central government and provincial councils. The local government bodies are collectively known as local authorities. They are responsible for providing a variety of local public services including roads,...
for the city of Jaffna
Jaffna
Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical...
in northern Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. JMC is responsible for providing a variety of local public services including roads, sanitation, drains, housing, libraries, public parks and recreational facilities. It has 23 members elected using the open list
Open list
Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected...
proportional representation system.
Mayors
The following were some of the city's mayors:- 1949 Sam. A. Sabapathi
- 1950-51 Cathiravelu Ponnambalam
- 1952-54 Sam. A Sabapathi
- 1955 Kadhi. M. A. M. M. Sulthan
- 1956-57 S. A. Navaratnam
- 1960 P. Kasipillai
- 1961-61 T. S. Thurairajah
- 1962 M. Jocob
- 1962-63 S. A. Thrmalingam
- 1963 P. M. Yoon
- 1963 T. S. Thurairajah
- 1964-65 S. S. Mahadeva
- 1966 Sinnathamby Nagarajah,
- 1970-75 Alfred DuraiappahAlfred DuraiappahAlfred Duraiappah was a former MP and mayor of Jaffna, Sri Lanka who was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers.-First political murder:A member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Alfred Duraiappah was a former MP and mayor of Jaffna...
- 1979-83 R. Viswanathan
- 1998 Sarojini YogeswaranSarojini YogeswaranSarojini Yogeswaran was a Sri Lankan politician. Yogeswaran was a member of the Tamil United Liberation Front. In 1997, she was elected mayor of Jaffna, the first elected mayor in 14 years....
- 1998 Pon SivapalanPon SivapalanPon Sivapalan was a Sri Lankan politician.Sivapalan succeeded Sarojini Yogeswaran as mayor of Jaffna after she was assassinated in 1998 by the LTTE. Like Yogeswaran, Sivapalan belonged to the Tamil United Liberation Front...
- 2001 Nadarajah RavirajNadarajah RavirajNadarajah Raviraj was a prominent Sri Lankan Tamil politician and human rights lawyer. Born in the Jaffna district in the North of Sri Lanka, he served as a Member of Parliament for the Tamil National Alliance, which is backed by the LTTE, until he was shot dead by gunmen in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on...
- 2002-03 S. Kandhaiyan
- 2009- Patkunam Yogeswary
1983 local government election
Results of the local government election held on 18 May 1983:| Alliances and parties | |% | |Seats | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamil United Liberation Front Tamil United Liberation Front The Tamil United Liberation Front is a political party in Sri Lanka which seeks independence for the Tamil-populated areas of Sri Lanka.-Formation:... |
8,594 | 88.63% | 23 | |
| United National Party United National Party The United National Party, often referred to as the UNP ), , is a political party in Sri Lanka. It currently is the main opposition party in Sri Lanka and is headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe... |
830 | 8.56% | 0 | |
| All Ceylon Tamil Congress All Ceylon Tamil Congress All Ceylon Tamil Congress , is the oldest Tamil political party in Sri Lanka.-History:The ACTC was founded in 1944 by G.G. Ponnambalam. Ponnambalam asked for a 50-50 representation in parliament... |
272 | 2.81% | 0 | |
| Valid Votes | 9,696 | 100.00% | 23 | |
| Rejected Votes | 74 | |||
| Total Polled | 9,770 | |||
| Registered Electors | 66,921 | |||
| Turnout | 14.60% | |||
Jaffna didn't have an elected local government for sporadic periods, this was due to various reasons. Aljazeera, the Asiafoundation and the Daily Mirror attribute this to civil war
Sri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...
; Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
and the US State Department attribute this to calls for election boycotts by the LTTE (enforced with brutal reprisals for non compliance); the Taipei Times
Taipei Times
The Taipei Times is one of the three major English-language newspapers in the Republic of China the other two being the Taiwan News and The China Post...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
attribute this to area coming under LTTE control and the Tamilnet
Tamilnet
TamilNet is a news website that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka, specifically related to the erstwhile Sri Lankan Civil War...
attribute it to The Sri Lankan government's suspension of all local government in the north
Northern Province, Sri Lanka
The Northern Province is one of the 9 provinces of Sri Lanka. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but did not have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. Between 1988 and 2006 the province was...
and east
Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
The Eastern Province is one of the 9 provinces of Sri Lanka. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but they didn't have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. Between 1988 and 2006 the province was...
of the country in 1983 using Emergency Regulations.
1998 local government election
Results of the local government electionSri Lankan local government elections, 1998
Local government elections were held in Sri Lanka on 29 January 1998 for 17 local authorities on the Jaffna peninsula, in the north of the country. They were the first local elections held in the peninsula since 1983. Turnout was low due to the threats issued by the rebel Tamil Tigers...
held on 29 January 1998:
| Alliances and parties | |% | |Seats | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamil United Liberation Front Tamil United Liberation Front The Tamil United Liberation Front is a political party in Sri Lanka which seeks independence for the Tamil-populated areas of Sri Lanka.-Formation:... |
3,540 | 33.31% | 9 | |
| Democratic People's Liberation Front Democratic People's Liberation Front Democratic People's Liberation Front , a registered political party in Sri Lanka and a front of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam . DPLF was founded in 1988. DPLF lost its parliamentary representation in the 2004 elections. 2001-2004 DPLF had one MP, elected from Vanni Electoral... (PLOTE People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam is a former Tamil militant group. It is currently a pro-government paramilitary group and political party. PLOTE's political wing is known as the Democratic People's Liberation Front.-Origins:... ) |
3,182 | 29.94% | 6 | |
| Eelam People's Democratic Party Eelam People's Democratic Party The Eelam People's Democratic Party is a political party and a pro-government paramilitary organization in Sri Lanka. It is led by its founder Douglas Devananda.-Background:... |
2,963 | 27.88% | 6 | |
| Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front is a Sri Lankan political party and a former militant separatist group.-Militant separatists:The EPRLF was formed in 1980 by K... |
943 | 8.87% | 2 | |
| Valid Votes | 10,628 | 100.00% | 23 | |
| Rejected Votes | 907 | |||
| Total Polled | 11,535 | |||
| Registered Electors | 82,667 | |||
| Turnout | 13.95% | |||
The normal life term of Sri Lankan local government bodies is four years. The life term of JMC expired in February 2002 but the central government extended this by another year, as the law allows. Elections should have been held when the extension expired in February 2003 but in January 2003, following a request from the Tamil National Alliance
Tamil National Alliance
The Tamil National Alliance is a powerful minority Sri Lankan Tamil political alliance in Sri Lanka. It was formed as an amalgamation of moderate Tamil parties as well as number of former rebel groups...
, the central government instead dissolved JMC and instead put in place special commissions to administer the local areas. JMC continued to be administered by these special commissions until the 2009 elections.
2009 local government election
Results of the local government electionSri Lankan local government elections, 2009
Local government elections were held in Sri Lanka on 8 August 2009 for two local councils in the north of the country: Jaffna Municipal Council and Vavuniya Urban Council. They were the first elections held in the country since the government declared victory in the 26 year old civil war on 18 May...
held on 8 August 2009:
| Alliances and parties | |% | |Seats | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United People's Freedom Alliance United People's Freedom Alliance The United People's Freedom Alliance is a political alliance in Sri Lanka. The current leader of the United People's Freedom Alliance is Mahinda Rajapaksa and Susil Premajayantha is the general secretary of UPFA.The alliance was formed by:... (EPDP Eelam People's Democratic Party The Eelam People's Democratic Party is a political party and a pro-government paramilitary organization in Sri Lanka. It is led by its founder Douglas Devananda.-Background:... , SLFP Sri Lanka Freedom Party The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is one of the major political parties in Sri Lanka. It was founded by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in 1951 and, since then, has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena. It first came to power in 1956 and since then has been the predominant party in... , ACMC et al.) |
10,602 | 50.67% | 13 | |
| Tamil National Alliance Tamil National Alliance The Tamil National Alliance is a powerful minority Sri Lankan Tamil political alliance in Sri Lanka. It was formed as an amalgamation of moderate Tamil parties as well as number of former rebel groups... (ITAK Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi is a Sri Lankan political party which represents the Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic minority in the country. It was originally formed in 1949 as breakaway faction of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress... , EPRLF (S) Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front is a Sri Lankan political party and a former militant separatist group.-Militant separatists:The EPRLF was formed in 1980 by K... , TELO Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization is an Eelam Tamil organisation campaigning for the establishment of an independent Tamil Eelam in the northeast of Sri Lanka. The TELO was originally created as a militant group, and functioned as such until 1986, when most of its membership was killed in a... ) |
8,008 | 38.28% | 8 | |
| Independent 1 Independent (politician) In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do... |
1,175 | 5.62% | 1 | |
| Tamil United Liberation Front Tamil United Liberation Front The Tamil United Liberation Front is a political party in Sri Lanka which seeks independence for the Tamil-populated areas of Sri Lanka.-Formation:... (TULF Tamil United Liberation Front The Tamil United Liberation Front is a political party in Sri Lanka which seeks independence for the Tamil-populated areas of Sri Lanka.-Formation:... , PLOTE People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam is a former Tamil militant group. It is currently a pro-government paramilitary group and political party. PLOTE's political wing is known as the Democratic People's Liberation Front.-Origins:... , EPRLF (V) Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front is a Sri Lankan political party and a former militant separatist group.-Militant separatists:The EPRLF was formed in 1980 by K... ) |
1,007 | 4.81% | 1 | |
| United National Party United National Party The United National Party, often referred to as the UNP ), , is a political party in Sri Lanka. It currently is the main opposition party in Sri Lanka and is headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe... |
83 | 0.40% | 0 | |
| Independent 2 Independent (politician) In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do... |
47 | 0.22% | 0 | |
| Valid Votes | 20,922 | 100.00% | 23 | |
| Rejected Votes | 1,358 | |||
| Total Polled | 22,280 | |||
| Registered Electors | 100,417 | |||
| Turnout | 22.19% | |||
The following candidates were elected:
Mudiyappu Remediyas (TNA), 4,223 preference votes (pv); Thurairajah Illango alias Regan (UPFA-EPDP), 3,387 pv; Mohamed Sultan Moulavi Sufian (Ind 1), 1,779 pv; Anthonypillai Mariamma (TNA), 1,678 pv; Murugiah Komahan (UPFA-EPDP), 1,573 pv; Karthigesu Nadarasa Kanagaratnam (TNA), 1,442 pv; Manuel Mangaleswaran alias Nesapriyan (UPFA-EPDP), 1,394 pv; Meerasahib Mohamed Rameez (UPFA-ACMC), 1,338 pv; Patkunam Yogeswary (UPFA-EPDP), 1,250 pv; Pilevian Expedith Cracian (UPFA-EPDP), 1,166 pv; Nadarajah Rajathevan (TNA), 1,118 pv; Benjamin Jacob (TNA), 1,039 pv; Mohamed Merasahib Mustafa (UPFA-ACMC), 1,029 pv; Manikkam Kanagaraththinam (UPFA-EPDP), 1,025 pv; Ariyakuddy Paramsothy (TNA), 1,007 pv; Sutharsingh Vijiyakanth (UPFA-EPDP), 989 pv; Asker Roomi Badurtheen (UPFA-ACMC), 979 pv; Ajmaeen Asfar (UPFA-ACMC), 960 pv; Suvikaran Nishanthan (UPFA-EPDP), 896 pv; Anthonipillai Cilapotasious (UPFA-EPDP), 889 pv; Mariyakorattry Anton (TNA), 881 pv; Arulappu Korneliyas (TNA), 826 pv; and Veerasingham Anandasangaree (TULF) 424 pv.
Patkunam Yogeswary (UPFA-EPDP) and Thurairajah Illango (UPFA-EPDP) were appointed Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively. Mudiyappu Remediyas of the TNA was appointed as the Opposition Leader of the Council but he crossed over to the UPFA in June 2011.