The Democratic Tamil National Alliance (

abbreviated An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

DTNA; ), previously known as the Tamil Democratic National Alliance (

TDNA), is a

political alliance A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who a ...

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, ...

that represents the country's

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

ethnic minority The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

. The alliance is recognised by the

Election Commission of Sri Lanka The Election Commission of Sri Lanka is the constitutional authority responsible for administering and overseeing all elections in Sri Lanka, including the Presidential, Parliamentary, Provincial and Local Authority elections. Sri Lanka has ha ...

as registered political party with the brass lamp (kuthuvilakku) as its

symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

History

The Tamil Democratic National Alliance (TDNA) was formed in 2008 by the

Democratic People's Liberation Front Democratic People's Liberation Front (DPLF; ) a registered political party in Sri Lanka and a front of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). History DPLF was established in 1987. While People's Liberation Organisation of T ...

(DPLF), the

Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) is a series of Sri Lankan political parties and a former militant separatist group. Militant separatists The EPRLF was formed in 1980 by K. Pathmanabha (Padmanaba), Douglas Devananda, Su ...

(Pathmanabha wing) and the

Tamil United Liberation Front The Tamil United Liberation Front (, ) is a political party in Sri Lanka. Formation On 4 May 1972, several Tamil political groups, including the Federal Party (ITAK), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), and All Ceylon Tamil Congress formed the Tami ...

to contest the 2008 Eastern Provincial Council elections. The TDNA secured 1.3% of the votes in the election, winning a single seat, R. Thurairatnam from the

Batticaloa District Batticaloa District ( ; ) is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary (previously known as a Government A ...

. Following the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009, the

Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora refers to the global diaspora of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. It can be said to be a subset of the larger Sri Lankan and Tamil diaspora. Like other diasporas, Sri Lankan Tamils are scattered and dispersed around the g ...

began exerting pressure on Sri Lankan Tamil political parties to unite under a common front, thus the DPLF/PLOTE and the TULF joined the

Tamil National Alliance The Tamil National Alliance (TNA; ISO 15919: ''tamiḻt tēciyakkūṭṭamaippu'') was a political alliance in Sri Lanka which represented the Sri Lankan Tamil minority of the country. It was formed in October 2001 by a group of moderate T ...

(TNA), the largest political group representing Sri Lankan Tamils at the time. The EPRLF (Pathmanabha wing) led by T. Sritharan was not allowed to join the TNA due to opposition from the EPRLF (Suresh wing) led by

Suresh Premachandran Arumugam Kandaiah Premachandran (; born 8 November 1957; commonly known as Suresh Premachandran) is a Sri Lankan Tamil militant turned politician and former Member of Parliament. He is the current leader of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Li ...

. The TDNA remained dormant thereafter. In December 2022 the

Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK; ; , ) is a Sri Lankan political party which represents the Sri Lankan Tamil minority in the country. It was originally founded in 1949 as a breakaway faction of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC). In 1972, ITA ...

, the main constituent party of the TNA, announced that it would contest the 2023 Sri Lankan local elections on its own. In response, the two remaining members of the TNA, the DPLF/PLOTE and the

Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) is a Sri Lankan Tamil political party and former militant group. Initially, the TELO campaigned for the establishment of an independent Tamil Eelam in northeastern Sri Lanka from 1972 to 1987, until ...

, resurrected the TDNA, renaming it as the Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA). The alliance was later joined by the Crusaders for Democracy, the EPRLF (Suresh) and the Tamil National Party. The DTNA is downplaying the "democratic" part of its name in a bid to suggest that it is the "real" TNA.

Members

Current

Former

Election results

Parliamentary

Provincial

Notes

References

{{Sri Lankan Tamil people 2008 establishments in Sri Lanka Political parties established in 2008 Political party alliances in Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist parties