Kopay Electoral District was an

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

between August 1947 and February 1989. The district was named after the town of

Kopay Kopay ( ta, கோப்பாய், translit=Kōppāy) is a town about 4 km from the city of Jaffna along Point Pedro road. An agricultural town consisting mainly of vegetable farms, paddy fields and coconut gardens. The suburb Kopay is b ...

in Jaffna District, Northern Province. The 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka introduced the

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

electoral system for electing

members Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. The existing 160 mainly

single-member A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vo ...

electoral districts were replaced with 22

multi-member An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...

s. 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

Elections

1947 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 1st parliamentary election held between 23 August 1947 and 20 September 1947:

1952 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 2nd parliamentary election held between 24 May 1952 and 30 May 1952:

1956 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 3rd parliamentary election held between 5 April 1956 and 10 April 1956: C. Vanniasingam died on 17 September 1959.

1960 (March) Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 4th parliamentary election held on 19 March 1960:

1960 (July) Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 5th parliamentary election held on 20 July 1960:

1965 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 6th parliamentary election held on 22 March 1965:

1970 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 7th parliamentary election held on 27 May 1970:

1977 Parliamentary General Election

Results of the 8th parliamentary election held on 21 July 1977: S. Kathiravelupillai died on 31 March 1981. His replacement M. Alalasundaram was sworn in on 23 July 1981. 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 The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව, Śrī Laṃkā āndukrama vyavasthāva, ta, இலங்கை அரசிய� ...

required them to swear an oath unconditionally renouncing support for a separate state; and the

Black July Black July ( ta, கறுப்பு யூலை, translit=Kaṟuppu Yūlai; si, කළු ජූලිය, Kalu Juliya) was an anti-Tamil pogrom that occurred in Sri Lanka during July 1983. The pogrom was premeditated,T. Sabaratnam, Pirapa ...

riots in which up to 3,000 Tamils were murdered by

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka * Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language ** Sinha ...

mobs. After three months of absence, Alalasundaram forfeited his seat in Parliament on 5 January 1984. M. Alalasundaram was murdered on 2 September 1985.

References & footnotes

{{coord missing, Sri Lanka Former electoral districts of Sri Lanka Politics of Jaffna District