Uduvil Electoral District was an electoral district of Sri Lanka between March 1960 and February 1989. The district was renamed Manipay Electoral District in July 1977. The district was named after the towns of Uduvil and Manipay in Jaffna District, Northern Province. 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] Manipay electoral district was replaced by the Jaffna multi-member electoral district at the 1989 general elections, the first under the PR system, though Manipay continues to be a polling division of the multi-member electoral district.
Key
| Election | Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 (March) | V. Dharmalingam | Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi | 1960-1960 | |
| 1960 (July) | 1960-1965 | |||
| 1965 | 1965-1970 | |||
| 1970 | 1970-1977 | |||
| 1977 | Tamil United Liberation Front | 1977-1989 | ||
Results of the 4th parliamentary election held on 19 March 1960:[2]
| align=left colspan=2 width="180" | Candidate! | align=left width="180" | Party! | align=left width="120" | Symbol! | align=left width="60" | Votes! | align=left width="60" | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor= | V. Dharmalingam | Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi[3] | House | 9,033 | 44.07% | ||||
| bgcolor= | Ponnambalam Nagalingam | Lanka Sama Samaja Party | Key | 3,811 | 18.59% | ||||
| bgcolor= | V. Ponnampalam | Communist Party | Star | 3,541 | 17.27% | ||||
| J. D. Asservatham | Independent | Book | 1,552 | 7.57% | |||||
| S. Handy Perimbanayagam | Independent | Pair of Spectacles | 1,241 | 6.05% | |||||
| N. Sivanesan | Independent | Sun | 1,008 | 4.92% | |||||
| V. Veerasingham | Independent | Cockerel | 312 | 1.52% | |||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Valid Votes | 20,498 | 100.00% | ||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Rejected Votes | 212 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Total Polled | 20,710 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Registered Electors | 27,278 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Turnout | 75.92% |
Results of the 5th parliamentary election held on 20 July 1960:[4]
| align=left colspan=2 width="180" | Candidate! | align=left width="180" | Party! | align=left width="120" | Symbol! | align=left width="60" | Votes! | align=left width="60" | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor= | V. Dharmalingam | Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi | House | 11,475 | 63.12% | ||||
| bgcolor= | Ponnambalam Nagalingam | Lanka Sama Samaja Party | Key | 6,704 | 36.88% | ||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Valid Votes | 18,179 | 100.00% | ||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Rejected Votes | 195 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Total Polled | 18,374 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Registered Electors | 27,278 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Turnout | 67.36% |
Results of the 6th parliamentary election held on 22 March 1965:[5]
| align=left colspan=2 width="180" | Candidate! | align=left width="180" | Party! | align=left width="120" | Symbol! | align=left width="60" | Votes! | align=left width="60" | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor= | V. Dharmalingam | Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi | House | 11,638 | 48.61% | ||||
| bgcolor= | Ponnambalam Nagalingam | Lanka Sama Samaja Party | Key | 6,726 | 28.09% | ||||
| bgcolor= | N. Sivaneson | All Ceylon Tamil Congress | Bicycle | 5,577 | 23.29% | ||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Valid Votes | 23,941 | 100.00% | ||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Rejected Votes | 287 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Total Polled | 24,228 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Registered Electors | 33,280 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Turnout | 72.80% |
Results of the 7th parliamentary election held on 27 May 1970:[6]
| align=left colspan=2 width="180" | Candidate! | align=left width="180" | Party! | align=left width="120" | Symbol! | align=left width="60" | Votes! | align=left width="60" | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor= | V. Dharmalingam | Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi | House | 14,120 | 49.27% | ||||
| bgcolor= | N. Sivaneson | All Ceylon Tamil Congress | Bicycle | 11,656 | 40.68% | ||||
| Kumaraswami Vinodhan | Independent | Pair of Scales | 1,362 | 4.75% | |||||
| bgcolor= | V. Karalasingham | Lanka Sama Samaja Party | Key | 1,264 | 4.41% | ||||
| P. V. M. K. M. Sinnathurai | Independent | Umbrella | 254 | 0.89% | |||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Valid Votes | 28,656 | 100.00% | ||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Rejected Votes | 119 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Total Polled | 28,775 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Registered Electors | 36,690 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Turnout | 78.43% |
Results of the 8th parliamentary election held on 21 July 1977:[7]
| align=left colspan=2 width="180" | Candidate! | align=left width="180" | Party! | align=left width="120" | Symbol! | align=left width="60" | Votes! | align=left width="60" | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor= | V. Dharmalingam | Tamil United Liberation Front | Sun | 27,550 | 83.99% | ||||
| bgcolor= | R. S. Aloysious | United National Party | Elephant | 3,300 | 10.06% | ||||
| C. P. V. M. K. Muthaliar | Independent | Umbrella | 1,065 | 3.25% | |||||
| K. N. Ratnavel | Independent | Ladder | 887 | 2.70% | |||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Valid Votes | 32,802 | 100.00% | ||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Rejected Votes | 199 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Total Polled | 33,001 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Registered Electors | 41,373 | |||||||
| align=left colspan=4 | Turnout | 79.76% |
Visvanathan Dharmalingam 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 required them to swear an oath unconditionally renouncing support for a separate state; and the Black July riots in which up to 3,000 Tamils were murdered by Sinhalese mobs. After three months of absence, Dharmalingam forfeited his seat in Parliament on 8 October 1983.[8]
Visvanathan Dharmalingam was murdered on 2 September 1985.[9]