Batticaloa Electoral District (1947–1989)

Batticaloa Electoral District was an electoral district of Sri Lanka between August 1947 and February 1989. The district was named after the city of Batticaloa in Batticaloa District, Eastern Province. The district was a two-member constituency between March 1960 and February 1989. 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] Batticaloa electoral district was replaced by the Batticaloa multi-member electoral district at the 1989 general elections, the first under the PR system, though Batticaloa continues to be a polling division of the multi-member electoral district.

Members of Parliament

Key

  Independent   ITAK   TULF   UNP

Election		Member	Party	Term
	1947	Ahamed Lebbe Sinne Lebbe	UNP	1947-1952
	1952	R. B. Kadramer	Ind.	1952-1956
	1956	C. Rajadurai	ITAK	1956-1960

Election		Member 1	Party	Term	Member 2		Party	Term
	1960 (March)	C. Rajadurai	ITAK	1960		Ahmed Hussain Macan Markar	Ind.	1960
	1960 (July)			1960-1965			UNP	1960-1965
	1965			1965-1970		Abdul Lathiff Sinnalebbe		1965-1970
	1970			1970-1977		P. R. Selvanayagam	Ind.	1970-1977
	1977		TULF	1977-1989		M. L. Ahamed Fareeth	UNP	1977-1985
						Ahamed Rizvi Sinnalebbe		1985-1989

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	%
	Ahamed Lebbe Sinne Lebbe	United National Party	Tree	4,740	35.40%
	K. V. M. Subramaniam	Independent	Key	3,395	25.36%
	R. B. Kadramer	Independent	Umbrella	2,313	17.28%
	N. S. Rasiah	Independent	Cup	2,226	16.63%
	E. Rasiah	Independent	Hand	714	5.33%
Valid Votes				13,388	100.00%
Rejected Votes				324
Total Polled				13,712
Registered Electors				27,409
Turnout				50.03%

1952 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	R. B. Kadramer	Independent	Elephant	11,420	58.93%
	Ahamed Lebbe Sinne Lebbe	United National Party	Tree	7,960	41.07%
Valid Votes				19,380	100.00%
Rejected Votes				260
Total Polled				19,640
Registered Electors				24,947
Turnout				78.73%

1956 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	C. Rajadurai	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	9,300	52.05%
	S. Ahamathulebbe		Tree	7,124	39.87%
	R. B. Kadramer	Batticaloa Tamil Speakers Front	Pair of Scales	1,296	7.25%
	A. Thavarajah		Bicycle	148	0.83%
Valid Votes				17,868	100.00%
Rejected Votes				288
Total Polled				18,156
Registered Electors				29,486
Turnout				61.57%

1960 (March) Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	C. Rajadurai	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	28,309	47.62%
	Ahmed Hussain Macan Markar	Independent	Cockerel	22,893	38.51%
	T. Mylvaganam		Ladder	8,242	13.87%
Valid Votes				59,444	100.00%
Rejected Votes				964
Total Polled				60,408
Registered Electors				37,832
Turnout				159.67%

1960 (July) Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	C. Rajadurai	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	29,853	52.68%
	Ahmed Hussain Macan Markar	United National Party	Elephant	22,031	38.88%
	Abdul Lathiff Sinnalebbe	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	Pair of Spectacles	2,484	4.38%
	K. N. Kumaraswamy		Cockerel	2,300	4.06%
Valid Votes				56,668	100.00%
Rejected Votes				954
Total Polled				57,622
Registered Electors				37,832
Turnout				152.31%

1965 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	C. Rajadurai	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	29,023	43.47%
	Abdul Lathiff Sinnalebbe	United National Party	Elephant	12,010	17.99%
	Ahmed Hussain Macan Markar		Cockerel	9,915	14.85%
	J. L. Tissaveerasinghe	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	Bicycle	8,107	12.14%
	A. Ahamed Lebbe		Umbrella	4,572	6.85%
	S. Nadarajah		Chair	2,298	3.44%
	S. Vinayagamani	Communist Party	Star	833	1.25%
Valid Votes				66,758	100.00%
Rejected Votes				1,124
Total Polled				67,882
Registered Electors				45,078
Turnout				150.59%

1970 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	C. Rajadurai	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[5]	House	27,661	33.17%
	P. R. Selvanayagam	Independent	Lamp	23,082	27.68%
	Ahmed Hussain Macan Markar	United National Party	Elephant	17,015	20.41%
	M. A. C. A. Rahuman	Sri Lanka Freedom Party	Hand	14,805	17.76%
	S. J. Arasaratnam		Cockerel	624	0.75%
	T. Francis Xavier		Pair of Scales	196	0.24%
Valid Votes				83,383	100.00%
Rejected Votes				1,298
Total Polled				84,681
Registered Electors				51,524
Turnout				164.35%

1977 Parliamentary General Election

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

Candidate		Party	Symbol	Votes	%
	C. Rajadurai	Tamil United Liberation Front	Sun	26,648	24.70%
	M. L. Ahamed Fareeth	United National Party	Elephant	25,345	23.49%
	Kasi Ananthan	Tamil United Liberation Front	House	22,443	20.80%
	Badiudin Mahmud	Sri Lanka Freedom Party	Hand	21,275	19.72%
	P. R. Selvanayagam		Lamp	11,797	10.93%
	Vinayagamoorthy Vettivel		Umbrella	383	0.35%
Valid Votes				107,891	100.00%
Rejected Votes				1,618
Total Polled				109,509
Registered Electors				63,039
Turnout				173.72%

M. L. Ahamed Fareeth died on 10 September 1985. His replacement Ahamed Rizvi Sinnalebbe was nominated on 25 October 1985.