All Ceylon Tamil Congress (), is the oldest
Tamil political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
.
History
The ACTC was founded in 1944 by
G.G. Ponnambalam. Ponnambalam asked for a 50-50 representation 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 ...
(50% for the majority
Sinhalese, and 50% for ''all'' other ethnic groups). This was immediately rejected by the British Governor General
Lord Soulbury as a "mockery of
democracy
Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
".
Due to the cooperation of the ACTC with the
United National Party
The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka.
Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...
(UNP) a group led by
S.J.V. Chelvanayakam broke away in 1949, forming the
Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), commonly known as Federal Party (FP). The ACTC was largely discredited when their ally the UNP moved away from bilingual and bicommunal policies towards a pro-
Sinhalese stance. Thus the FP emerged as the major Tamil party in 1956.
In 1972 the ACTC and the FP formed the Tamil United Front, which later evolved into the
Tamil United Liberation Front in 1976.
Ahead of the 2001 elections, ACTC joined the
LTTE-backed
Tamil National Alliance (TNA). In the 2004 elections the TNA won 6.9% of the popular vote and 22 out of the 225 seats in parliament.
The ACTC left the TNA in 2010 and subsequently joined a new political alliance, the
Tamil National People's Front.
Leaders
Leaders of this party:
*
G. G. Ponnambalam (Snr.)
*
Kumar Ponnambalam
* Dr.
Nalliah Kumaraguruparan
*
A. Vinayagamoorthy
*
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam
1947 Parliamentary General Election
In the
1947 election, the first for the independent
Ceylon
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
, the ACTC won 4.37% of the popular vote and 7 out of 95 seats in the
Sri Lankan parliament.
Votes and seats won by ACTC by electoral district
1952 Parliamentary General Election
In the
1952 election the ACTC won 2.77% of the popular vote and 4 out of 95 seats in the
Sri Lankan parliament.
Votes and seats won by ACTC by electoral district
1956 Parliamentary General Election
In the
1956 election the ACTC fielded only one
candidate
A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position. For example, one can be a candidate for membership in a group (sociology), group or election to an offic ...
, party leader
G.G. Ponnambalam in
Jaffna, who managed to win the seat with 8,914 votes.
1960 (March) Parliamentary General Election
In the
March 1960 election the ACTC won 1.32% of the popular vote and 1 out of 151 seats in the
Sri Lankan parliament.
Votes and seats won by ACTC by electoral district
1960 (July) Parliamentary General Election
In the
July 1960 election the ACTC won 1.66% of the popular vote and 1 out of 151 seats in the
Sri Lankan parliament.
Result of Parliamentary General Election 1960-07-20, Department of Elections
1965 Parliamentary General Election
In the 1965 election the ACTC won 2.44% of the popular vote and 3 out of 151 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament.
Votes and seats won by ACTC by electoral district
1970 Parliamentary General Election
In the 1970 election the ACTC won 2.32% of the popular vote and 3 out of 151 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament.
Votes and seats won by ACTC by electoral district
2000 Parliamentary General Election
In the 2000 election the ACTC won 0.32% of the popular vote and 1 out of 225 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament.
Votes and seats won by ACTC by electoral district
2001 Parliamentary General Election
2004 Parliamentary General Election
2010 Parliamentary General Election
References
{{Sri Lankan Tamil people
1944 establishments in Ceylon
Ceylon in World War II
Political parties established in 1944
Political parties in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist parties