A TAMIL candidate won support from Harrow voters in last week's European elections for her campaign on civil and human rights for people in Sri Lanka.

City banker Jan Jananayagam, who used to live in Harrow, only decided to run in the elections four weeks before polling day and stood to highlight the Sri Lankan situation and put pressure on the international community to intervene.

She came third with 6,856 votes and polled 11 per cent of the vote to beat established parties including the Liberal Democrats, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the Green Party.

Ms Jananayagam said she believed the Tamil community came out in force to give their vote.

"I reached out to other communities, but I had to base my vote where the core support was, in the Tamil community. I was very pleased. We went door to door and the support we got held up in the vote.”

Ms Jananayagam's platform attacked the Sri Lankan Government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)and United Nations for helping to prop up the administration.

She claimed: “British taxpayers' money is being used to support genocide.

“The IMF makes its own decisions to finance Governments and does not take into account legislation that doesn't permit public funds being given to countries that are violating human rights.”

Ms Jananayagam is the UK spokesman for Tamils Against Genocide, an organisation pushing for convictions against top-ranking Sri Lankan officials.

She said: “British people are asking why there is a demonstration in Parliament Square, but people aren't being told the full truth about what is happening behind closed doors."

However, despite scoring 50,014 across London, Ms Jananayagam, said she had no immediate plans to run in future elections.

A full breakdown of the votes cast in Harrow is listed below:

  • Conservative Party: 20793
  • Labour Party: 12135
  • Jan Jananayagam: 6856
  • Liberal Democrat Party: 6054
  • United Kingdom Independence Party: 5837
  • Green Party: 4181
  • British National Party: 1835
  • Christian Party "Proclaiming Christ's Lordship": 1558
  • English Democrats Party: 793
  • No2EU : Yes to Democracy, 526
  • Socialist Labour Party (Leader: Arthur Scargill): 371
  • Jury Team: 320
  • Pro Democracy: Libertas.eu: 312
  • Sohale Rahman: 269
  • Steven Cheung: 151
  • The Socialist Party of Great Britain: 137
  • Yes 2 Europe: 110
  • Haroon Saad: 66
  • Gene Alcantara: 46