Politics of Sri Lanka

Politics of Sri Lanka Political parties in Sri Lanka Elections in Sri Lanka: Parliament: 2001 - 2004

Legislative elections were held in Sri Lanka on 2 April 2004. The ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was defeated, winning only 82 seats in the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament. The opposition United People's Freedom Alliance won 105 seats. While this is eight seats short of a majority, it seems likely that the Alliance will be able to form a government.

On 6 April President Chandrika Kumaratunga commissioned Mahinda Rajapakse, a former Labour Minister, as Prime Minister.

The United People's Freedom Alliance was formed as an alliance between President Kumaratunga's party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), and the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Other parties, that belongs to the People's Alliance, such as the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, the Democratic United National Front, the Lanka Sama Samaj Party, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya, later joined UPFA.

In the 2001 elections, People's Alliance and Janatha Vimukti Peramuna had fought separately. Then JVP won 9.1% of the vote and 16 seats. At this election it is reported than as many as 39 JVP members won seats as Freedom Alliance candidates.

The runner-up in the election was the United National Front (UNF), the front led by the United National Party. Except for UNP, UNF also had candidates from minor parties such as Ceylon Workers Congress.

Other parties winning seats were the Buddhist, Sinhala nationalist outfit Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the pro-LTTE alliance Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP). The Democratic Peoples Liberation Front (political wing of PLOTE) lost their parliamentary representation.

Sri Lanka's Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said that despite reported cases of electoral malpractice in certain polling stations in six electoral districts, there would be no fresh elections in these areas and the results issued by the Commission were final.

Provisional results

National summary of votes and seats

Party	Votes	%	Change	Seats	Change
Eelam People's Democratic Party	21,860	0.2	-0.6	1	-1
Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchi	633,654	6.8	-	22	+22
Jathika Hela Urumaya	554,076	6.0	-	9	+9
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress	186,876	2.0	+0.8	5	-
United National Front	3,410,174	36.8	-8.8	82	-27
United People's Freedom Alliance	4,317,996	46.6	+0.2	105	+12
Other	138,096	1.5	-	1	-15
Total	9,262,732	-	-	225	-29

The United People's Freedom Alliance vote and seat totals are compared with the combined People's Alliance and JVP vote and seat counts at the 2001 election.

Votes and seats by electoral district

District	UNP	UPFA	Other	Valid Votes
Anuradhapura	148,612 (39.9%) 3 seats	212,943 (57.2%) 5 seats	JHU: 8,034 (2.2%)	372,125
Badulla	181,705 (49.1%) 5 seats	178,634 (48.3%) 3 seats	JHU: 6,932 (1.9%)	370,178
Batticaloa	6,151 (2.5%)	26,268 (10.9%)	ITAK: 161,011 (66.7%) 4 seats SLMC: 43,131 (17.9%) 1 seat	241,375
Colombo	441,841 (41.8%) 9 seats	414,688 (39.2%) 8 seats	JHU: 190,618 (18.0%) 3 seats	1,057,966
Digamadulla	42,121 (14.5%) 1 seat	111,747 (38.5%) 3 seats	SLMC: 76,563 (26.4%) 2 seats ITAK: 55,533 (19.1%) 1 seat EPDP: 1,611 (0.5%) JHU: 1,130 (0.4%)	290,361
Galle	209,399 (38.7%) 4 seats	306,385 (56.6%) 6 seats	JHU: 22,826 (4.2%)	541,511
Gampaha	367,572 (37.1%) 6 seats	509,963 (51.5%) 9 seats	JHU: 102,516 (19.4%) 2 seats	990,002
Hambantota	98,877 (35.4%) 2 seats	178,895 (64.0) 5 seats	JHU: 1,538 (0.5%)	279,310
Jaffna	-	-	ITAK: 257,320 (90.6%) 8 seats EPDP: 18,612 (6.5%) 1 seat SLMC: 1,995 (0.7%)	284,026
Kaluthara	212,721 (37.8%) 3 seats	291,208 (51.7%) 6 seats	JHU: 56,615 (10.1) 1 seat	563,019
Kandy	313,859 (50.0%) 6 seats	268,131 (42.7%) 5 seats	JHU: 42,192 (6.7%) 1 seat	627,866
Kegalle	186,641 (44.3%) 4 seats	214,267 (50.9%) 5 seats	JHU: 18,034 (4.3%)	421,131
Kurunegala	340,768 (42.9%) 7 seats	412,157 (51.9%) 9 seats	JHU: 37,459 (4.7%)	793,647
Matale	100,642 (45.7%) 2 seats	108,259 (49.2%) 3 seats	JHU: 8,819 (4.0%)	220,062
Matara	139,633 (34.9%) 3 seats	241,235 (60.3%) 5 seats	JHU: 16,229 (4.0%)	400,233
Monaragala	71,067 (37.0) 2 seats	117,456 (61.1%) 3 seats	JHU: 2,675 (1.4%)	192,113
Nuwara-Eliya	82,945 (25.3%) 2 seats	176,971 (54.0%) 4 seats	JHU: 4,454 (1.4%) Other: 63,239 (19.3%) 1 seat	327,609
Polonnaruwa	75,664 (40.8%) 2 seats	106,243 (57.3%) 3 seats	JHU: 2,413 (1.3%)	185,261
Puttalam	135,152 (46.6%) 3 seats	142,784 (49.3%) 5 seats	JHU: 10,000 (3.4%)	289,763
Ratnapura	205,490 (41.8%) 4 seats	261,450 (53.1%) 6 seats	JHU: 20,801 (4.2%)	492,003
Trincomalee	15,693 (8.6%)	31,053 (17.0%) 1 seat	ITAK: 68,955 (37.7%) 2 seats SLMC: 65,187 (35.7%) 1 seat JHU: 791 (0.4%) EPDP: 540 (0.3%)	182,794
Vanni	33,621 (23.9%) 1 seat	7,259 (05.2%)	ITAK: 90,835 (64.7%) 5 seats EPDP: 1,097 (0.8%)	140,377

Background

Polling booths opened at 07:00 local time and remained open until 16:00 (01:00 to 10:00 UTC). A total of 10,670 polling stations were installed to receive votes from 12.9 million eligible voters. Voter turnout was high, at around 75%.

The backdrop to polling day was tense, with continued guerrilla activity by Tamil Tiger separatists and five politically motivated murders in the run-up to the election. However, except for a slightly lower turnout in the Eastern province and allegations of fraud in the North, the election was calm and orderly.

See also

• Sri Lankan legislative election, 2001
• Politics of Sri Lanka
• List of political parties in Sri Lanka
• Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka