Voter turnout endorses NCET, 15 members elected

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 November 2009, 05:27 GMT]
The Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET) attracted enough number of participants in the poll that took place Sunday in 16 centres of the different regions of Norway, in which 2767 voters turned out to elect 5 members under a national list and 10 under regional lists. Noticeable of the results was Mr. Bjønar Moxnes topping the national list polling 1864 votes. Mr. Vijayshankar from Tamil Nadu is elected to the Council topping the list of Western Region. Considering the electoral history of Eezham Tamils, who have hitherto been imposed with constitutions and were voting in elections conducted by others, this is their first ever country-wide elections, conducted by them on their own, to form a political body of their own, based on their own constitution. The eight-member Election Commission performed the task with professional perfection, observers said.



Five elected under the national list:
Votes Polled: 2767

1. Bjønar Moxnes (1864)
2. Panchakulasingam Kandiah (1767)
3. Jeyasri Balasubramaniam (1483)
4. Athithan Kumarasamy (1287)
5. Tharmaseelan Tharmalingam (1243)

Ten elected under regional lists:


East: Votes polled: 2076

• Sivaganesh Vadivelu (1600)
• Rajendhrum Ponnuthurai (1597)
• Sivarajah Vallipuram (1546)
• Kannan Nagendram (1523)
• Mary Florida Judin Francis (1470)
• Rajaratnam Veluppillai (1465)

Centre: Votes polled: 309

• Rasakumar Kumarasamy (192)

West: Votes polled: 130

• Vijayshankar Asokan (118)

South, Southwest: Votes polled: 108

• D. Reggie (79)

North: Votes polled: 59

• Ruben Ayathurai (44)

Meanwhile, institutions of Eezham Tamils functioning in Norway elected the following five members on 8th November for the second chamber, House of Eelam Institutions in Norway:

• Kailainathan Ambalavanathan
• Luxshjeha Sri
• Nirmalan Selvarajah
• Suthakar Kumarasamy
• Varaluxmy Vasanthan

The constitution requires minimum 30 percent Eezham-Tamil voter turnout for any decisions on it, which has been accomplished in the present elections. The number of voters of the origin of the island of Sri Lanka including Sinhalese, obtained from Statistics Norway, is 8772.

The estimation is that the polling centres roughly covered 74 percent of the voting population, i.e., 6512 voters and the voter turn out was roughly 43 percent.

5574 voters said yes to Vaddukkoaddai Resolution (VR) in May 2009. The Council is now formed based on the principle of this resolution. Roughly 50 percent of the number that stood for the principle now participated in the electoral process.

More than 50 percent of the number of voters, who said yes to VR, have participated in the formation of NCET in all the regions of Norway, except in the Western Region (Bergen). The voter turn out was also less than 30 percent in Bergen.

While the historic exercise of the election goes on record and the Council has now come into effect through a totally peaceful ballot, the reactions the efforts faced directly and indirectly, from inside and outside of the society, also go on record.

Eezham Tamil diaspora all over the world, aspiring organisation of its own polity, has to carefully make its own judgements by deducing motives behind personalities, sections of media operating in the diaspora and imperceptible approaches of powers to certain exerting sections of the society - all that caused a political discourse in the last couple of months about the formation of the Council, commented political observers.




Chronology:


External Links:

NCET:		Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET)
TamilValg:		TamilValg (Election Commission)