Janani Jananayagam | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | British |
| Party | Independent |
| Residence | London[2] |
| Alma mater | University of Manchester Imperial College London INSEAD |
| Occupation | Project Manager |
| Website | http://vote4jan.org/beta/ |
Janani Jananayagam (Tamil:ஜனனி (ஜான்) ஜனநாயகம்) is aBritish Tamil banking professional, activist and politician. She was anindependentcandidate for theLondon region in the2009 European Parliamentary elections.[3]
Jan was born inJaffna,Sri Lanka but spent most of heryouth inNigeria andZambia where her parents were teachers.[1] Later she and her parents emigrated to theUnited Kingdom.[4] She studied at theUniversity of Manchester and graduated withdistinction incomputing andinformation systems. She later received a master's degree inapplied mathematics fromImperial College London and aMaster of Business Administration fromINSEAD business school.[5][6]
After a period in computingresearch and development Jan moved into thebanking industry. She currently works in the London and German offices of a leading Italian bank as aproject manager. She is involved in the setting up ofe-commerce ventures.[7] Jananayagam has written columns in theTamil Guardian that focused on Sri Lanka's treatment of Tamils.
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.[8] The main policies on which she campaigned on were:[9]
She campaigned against theBritish National Party.[10]
She had been endorsed by theOscar-nominated musicianMaya Arulpragasam (MIA).[1] MIA started an online campaign in support of Jan and offered a free song.[1]
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%).[11] This was more than the combined vote for all otherindependent candidates across the whole of the UK.[12] Her £5000 deposit was returned, as she got more than the 2.5% threshold in the vote.[8]
Votes received by Jan for eachLondon borough:
| Borough | Votes | % | Pos | Borough | Votes | % | Pos | Borough | Votes | % | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barking and Dagenham[13] | 386 | 1.08% | 10th | Hammersmith & Fulham[14] | 140 | 0.35% | 13th | Lewisham[15] | 1,992 | 3.76% | 8th |
| Barnet[16] | 1,234 | 1.51% | 8th | Haringey | Newham[17] | 3,520 | 7.40% | 3rd | |||
| Bexley[18] | 378 | 0.62% | 11th | Harrow[19] | 6,856 | 11.00% | 3rd | Redbridge[20] | 4,910 | 7.81% | 6th |
| Brent[21] | 4,867 | 8.33% | 5th | Havering[22] | 203 | 0.33% | 13th | Richmond upon Thames[23] | 147 | 0.28% | 13th |
| Bromley[24] | 619 | 0.71% | 9th | Hillingdon[25] | 2,433 | 3.96% | 7th | Southwark[26] | 163 | 0.30% | 13th |
| Camden[27] | 121 | 0.26% | 15th | Hounslow[28] | 1,054 | 2.09% | 8th | Sutton[29] | 1,664 | 3.40% | 7th |
| Croydon[30] | 3,128 | 3.87% | 8th | Islington[31] | 128 | 0.30% | 15th | Tower Hamlets[32] | 109 | 0.24% | 16th |
| Ealing[33] | 4,716 | 6.51% | 6th | Kensington & Chelsea[34] | 70 | 0.26% | 15th | Waltham Forest[35] | 1,493 | 2.86% | 8th |
| Enfield[36] | 1,194 | 1.83% | 8th | Kingston upon Thames[37] | 2,150 | 5.16% | 6th | Wandsworth[38] | 928 | 1.35% | 8th |
| Greenwich[39] | 773 | 1.53% | 9th | Lambeth[40] | 176 | 0.31% | 14th | Westminster[41] | 100 | 0.27% | 16th |
| Hackney | Merton[42] | 3,960 | 7.95% | 6th | City of London[43] | 4 | 0.19% | =14th |