1924 Ceylonese Legislative Council election
The fourth election to the Legislative Council of Ceylon was held in 1924.
Background
In 1833 the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission created the Legislative Council of Ceylon, the first step in representative government in British Ceylon. Initially the Legislative Council consisted of 16 members: the British Governor, the five appointed members of the Executive Council of Ceylon, four other government officials and six appointed unofficial members.In 1889 the number of appointed unofficial members was increased to eight.
The Legislative Council was reformed in 1910 by the McCallum Reforms. Membership was increased to 21 of which 11 were officially appointed and 10 were unofficial. Less than 3,000 Ceylonese were eligible to vote for the four elected unofficial members.
Further reforms were enacted in 1920 by the First Manning Reforms. Membership was increased to 37 of which 14 were officially appointed and 23 were unofficial.
The old Legislative Council was dissolved in August 1924 and elections held. Less than 205,000 Ceylonese were eligible to vote for the 34 elected unofficial members. The new Legislative Council was constituted on 15 October 1924.
Elected unofficial members
The following were some of the elected unofficial members, by constituency:- Central Province – George E. de Silva.
- Eastern Province Batticaloa – E. R. Tambimuthu.
- Eastern Province Trincomalee – M. M. Subramaniam.
- Northern Province Central – S. Rajaratnam.
- Northern Province East – T M Sabaratnam.
- Northern Province North – Ponnambalam Ramanathan.
- Northern Province South – Arumugam Canagaratnam.
- Northern Province West – Waithilingam Duraiswamy.
- Southern Province Central – Forester Augustus Obeysekera.
- Southern Province East – V. S. de S. Wikramanayake.
- Southern Province West – C. W. W. Kannangara, polled 4,177 votes.
- Western Province Negombo – Don Stephen Senanayake, elected unopposed.
- Western Province Kalutara – E. W. Perera.
- Ceylon Tamil for Western Province – Arunachalam Mahadeva.
- Indian Tamil 1 – I. X. Pereira.
- Indian Tamil 2 – K. Natesa Iyer.
- Muslim 1 – Mohamed Macan Markar.
- Muslim 2 – N. H. M. Abdul Cader.
- Muslim 3 – Tuan Burhanudeen Jayah.
Appointed unofficial members
The Governor appointed the following unofficial members:- K. Balasingham