Elections in Sri Lanka
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Politics of Sri Lanka |
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Sri Lanka elects on the national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. Sri Lanka has a multi-party system, with two dominant political parties. All elections are administered by the Election Commission of Sri Lanka.
President
[edit]The president is directly elected for a five-year term, through a version of Instant-runoff voting in which electors rank up to three candidates, and limited to only two rounds in total. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round of voting, second and third preferences from ballots whose first preference candidate has been eliminated are used to determine the winner.[1] However, there was never an instance where a "run-off" count was needed since the introduction of directly elected president in the 1980s until the 2024 election. No candidate reached 50% in the first count in that election, so the second count was performed.
Parliament
[edit]The Parliament has 225 members, elected for a five-year term, 196 members elected in multi-seat constituencies through proportional representation system where each party is allocated a number of seats from the quota for each district according to the proportion of the total vote that party obtains in the district. The other 29 which is called the national list are appointed by each party secretary according to the island wide proportional vote the party obtains.
Local Government
[edit]The Local government bodies in Sri Lanka;
are elected through the mixed electoral system.
Latest elections
[edit]2024 presidential election
[edit]Candidate | Party | First preference | Total votes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Anura Kumara Dissanayake | National People's Power | 5,634,915 | 42.31 | 5,740,179 | 55.89 | |
Sajith Premadasa | Samagi Jana Balawegaya | 4,363,035 | 32.76 | 4,530,902 | 44.11 | |
Ranil Wickremesinghe | Independent[a] | 2,299,767 | 17.27 | |||
Namal Rajapaksa | Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna | 342,781 | 2.57 | |||
P. Ariyanethiran | Independent | 226,343 | 1.70 | |||
Dilith Jayaweera | Communist Party of Sri Lanka | 122,396 | 0.92 | |||
K. K. Piyadasa | Independent | 47,543 | 0.36 | |||
D. M. Bandaranayake | Independent | 30,660 | 0.23 | |||
Sarath Fonseka | Independent | 22,407 | 0.17 | |||
Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe | National Democratic Front | 21,306 | 0.16 | |||
Anuruddha Polgampola | Independent | 15,411 | 0.12 | |||
Sarath Keerthirathne | Independent | 15,187 | 0.11 | |||
K. R. Krishan | Arunalu People's Front | 13,595 | 0.10 | |||
Suranjeewa Anoj de Silva | Democratic United National Front | 12,898 | 0.10 | |||
Priyantha Wickremesinghe | Nava Sama Samaja Party | 12,760 | 0.10 | |||
Namal Rajapaksha | Samabima Party | 12,700 | 0.10 | |||
Akmeemana Dayarathana Thero | Independent | 11,536 | 0.09 | |||
Nuwan Bopege | Socialist People's Forum | 11,191 | 0.08 | |||
Ajantha de Zoyza | Ruhunu People's Party | 10,548 | 0.08 | |||
Victor Anthony Perera | Independent | 10,374 | 0.08 | |||
Siripala Amarasinghe | Independent | 9,035 | 0.07 | |||
Siritunga Jayasuriya | United Socialist Party | 8,954 | 0.07 | |||
Battaramulle Seelarathana Thero | People's Welfare Front | 6,839 | 0.05 | |||
Abubakar Mohamed Infaz | Democratic Unity Alliance | 6,531 | 0.05 | |||
Pemasiri Manage | Independent | 5,822 | 0.04 | |||
Mahinda Dewage | Socialist Party of Sri Lanka | 5,338 | 0.04 | |||
Keerthi Wickremeratne | Our People's Power Party | 4,676 | 0.04 | |||
Pani Wijesiriwardena | Socialist Equality Party | 4,410 | 0.03 | |||
Oshala Herath | New Independent Front | 4,253 | 0.03 | |||
Roshan Ranasinghe | Independent | 4,205 | 0.03 | |||
P. W. S. K. Bandaranayake | National Development Front | 4,070 | 0.03 | |||
Ananda Kularatne | Independent | 4,013 | 0.03 | |||
Lalith de Silva | United National Freedom Front | 3,004 | 0.02 | |||
Sidney Jayarathna | Independent | 2,799 | 0.02 | |||
Janaka Ratnayake | United Lanka People's Party | 2,405 | 0.02 | |||
M. Thilakarajah | Independent | 2,138 | 0.02 | |||
Sarath Manamendra | New Sinhala Heritage | 1,911 | 0.01 | |||
A. S. P. Liyanage | Sri Lanka Labour Party | 1,860 | 0.01 | |||
Total | 13,319,616 | 100.00 | 10,271,081 | 100.00 | ||
Valid votes | 13,319,616 | 97.80 | 10,271,081 | 75.41 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 300,300 | 2.20 | 3,348,835 | 24.59 | ||
Total votes | 13,619,916 | 100.00 | 13,619,916 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 17,140,354 | 79.46 | 17,140,354 | 79.46 | ||
Source: Election Commission of Sri Lanka [2] |
2020 Parliamentary election
[edit]Alliances and parties | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
District | National | Total | |||||
6,853,690 | 59.09% | 128 | 17 | 145 | |||
2,771,980 | 23.90% | 47 | 7 | 54 | |||
327,168 | 2.82% | 9 | 1 | 10 | |||
445,958 | 3.84% | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||
67,766 | 0.58% | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
Eelam People's Democratic Party | 61,464 | 0.53% | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||
United National Party (Ranil wing) | 249,435 | 2.15% | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
Our Power of People's Party |
67,758 | 0.58% | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal | 67,692 | 0.58% | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
Sri Lanka Freedom Party[iv] | 66,579 | 0.57% | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
Muslim National Alliance | 55,981 | 0.48% | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
|
51,301 | 0.44% | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
All Ceylon Makkal Congress[vi] | 43,319 | 0.37% | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
National Congress[i] | 39,272 | 0.34% | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress[vii] | 34,428 | 0.30% | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
Independents | 223,622 | 1.93% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
United Peace Alliance | 31,054 | 0.27% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
All Lanka Tamil Mahasabha | 30,031 | 0.26% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
National Development Front | 14,686 | 0.13% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Frontline Socialist Party | 14,522 | 0.13% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Social Democratic Party of Tamils | 11,464 | 0.10% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Tamil United Liberation Front | 9,855 | 0.08% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Socialist Party of Sri Lanka | 9,368 | 0.08% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
People's Welfare Front | 7,361 | 0.06% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Sinhalese National Front | 5,056 | 0.04% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
New Democratic Front | 4,883 | 0.04% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
United Left Front | 4,879 | 0.04% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Liberal Party of Sri Lanka | 4,345 | 0.04% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
National People's Party | 3,813 | 0.03% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Democratic United National Front | 3,611 | 0.03% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
National Democratic Front | 3,488 | 0.03% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Sri Lanka Labour Party | 3,134 | 0.03% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Democratic Left Front | 2,964 | 0.03% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
New Sinhala Heritage | 1,397 | 0.01% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
United Socialist Party | 1,189 | 0.01% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Motherland People's Party | 1,087 | 0.01% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Eelavar Democratic Front | 1,035 | 0.01% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Socialist Equality Party | 780 | 0.01% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Lanka Sama Samaja Party[iii] | 737 | 0.01% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
All Are Citizens All Are Kings Organization | 632 | 0.01% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Democratic Unity Alliance | 145 | 0.00% | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Valid Votes | 11,598,929 | 100.00% | 196 | 29 | 225 | ||
Rejected Votes | 744,373 | 6.03% | |||||
Total Polled | 12,343,302 | 75.89% | |||||
Registered Electors | 16,263,885 | ||||||
Footnotes:
|
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Member of the United National Party officially running as independent, endorsed by the UNP and SLPP breakaway faction
References
[edit]- ^ "IFES Election Guide | Elections: Sri Lanka Pres Jan 2010". www.electionguide.org. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
- ^ *For Presidential election results: "Presidential Election Results – 2024". Election Commission of Sri Lanka. 22 September 2024. Archived from the original on 7 November 2024. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- For the all-island result: "Presidential Election 2024 – All island result – Without preferences" (PDF). Election Commission of Sri Lanka. 22 September 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
- For the preference vote result: "Presidential Election 2024 – All island preferences result" (PDF). Election Commission of Sri Lanka. 22 September 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
- For the final result: "Presidential Election 2024 – Final result" (PDF). Election Commission of Sri Lanka. 22 September 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
- ^ "2020 Sri Lankan Parliamentary Elections". Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka: Election Commission of Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ "Parliamentary Election 2020". The Daily Mirror. Colombo, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ "Official Election Results Parliamentary Election - 2020 - Sri Lanka". news.lk. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Department of Government Information. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
External links
[edit]- Department of Elections
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- www.Srilankanelections.com - A website featuring Sri Lankan elections and results.