North Eastern Provincial Council election, 1988

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

1. "Indo Sri Lanka Agreement, 1987". TamilNation. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
2. "Provincial Councils". The Official Website of the Government of Sri Lanka. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
3. "The Constitution". The Official Website of the Government of Sri Lanka. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
4. "North-East merger illegal: SC". LankaNewspapers.com. 17 October 2006. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
5. "Ethnic Conflict of Sri Lanka: Time Line - From Independence to 1999". International Centre for Ethnic Studies. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
6. "Election Results". Tamil Times VIII (1): 4. December 1988. ISSN 0266-4488.
7. K T Rajasingham (20 April 2002). "Sri Lanka" The Untold Story". Asia Times. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
8. Shamindra Ferdinando (10 September 2000). "I'm no traitor, says Perumal". Sunday Island, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 28 June 2009.