Janani (Jan) Jananayagam ( ta, ஜனனி (ஜான்) ஜனநாயகம்) is a
British Tamil
British Tamils ( ta, பிரித்தானியத் தமிழர், irittāṉiyat tamiḻar are British people of Tamil origin.
However, "Tamil" is not one of the predefined tick-box answers for the ethnicity question on the UK Cen ...
banking professional, activist and politician. She was an
independent candidate for the
London region in the
2009 European Parliamentary elections.
Early life
Jan was born in
Jaffna, Sri Lanka but spent most of her
youth in Nigeria and
Zambia where her parents were teachers.
Later she and her parents emigrated to the United Kingdom.
She studied at the
University of Manchester and graduated with
distinction in
computing and
information systems. She later received a master's degree in
applied mathematics from
Imperial College London and a
Master of Business Administration from
INSEAD business school.
Professional career
After a period in computing
research and development
Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...
Jan moved into the
banking industry. She currently works in the London and
German offices of a leading Italian bank as a
project manager
A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined f ...
. She is involved in the setting up of
e-commerce ventures. Jananayagam has written columns in the ''
Tamil Guardian'' that focused on Sri Lanka's treatment of Tamils.
European Parliament candidate
Jan stood as an independent candidate for the London region in the 2009 European Parliamentary elections. She did not win a seat, but garnered 2.86% of the vote.
The main policies on which she campaigned on were:
*
Civil rights and individual freedom
* Financial transparency and effective regulation
* Equality and diversity
* Small businesses and entrepreneurship
* Ethical foreign policy
*
Animal welfare
Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevity ...
She campaigned against the
British National Party.
She had been endorsed by the
Oscar-nominated musician
Maya Arulpragasam (MIA).
MIA has started an online campaign in support of Jan and offered a free song.
Despite winning many votes for an Independent, she did not win a seat against competitive parties. Jan came 8th out of the 19 parties/independents contesting London after receiving 50,014 votes (2.86%). This was more than the combined vote for all other
independent candidates across the whole of the UK.
Her £5000 deposit was returned, as she got more than the 2.5% threshold in the vote.
Votes received by Jan for each
London borough:
References
External links
* *
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jananayagam, Jan
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
British human rights activists
Women human rights activists
British people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent
Sri Lankan emigrants to the United Kingdom
People from Jaffna
INSEAD alumni
British Hindus