The Electoral System of Sri Lanka (Brief)

 

The Electoral System of Sri Lanka (Brief)

 The 1978 Constitution introduced a radical departure to the previously existing electoral system and electoral districts. Though Sri Lanka is often touted as the oldest democracy in Asia, few have an in-depth understanding of the country’s electoral process. Fewer still are aware of the finer details of election laws as laid out in a constitution that has been amended 19 times since 1978. The previous system was based on constituencies with individual candidates nominated by recognized political parties or independent candidates. The candidate obtaining the highest number of votes in respect of the constituency was declared elected. This system, commonly described as the First-past-the-post (FPP) system, was changed in to a system of Proportional Representation in respect of 22 electoral districts.

The apportionment of the number of members to be returned from each electoral district is made by the Commissioner of Elections in terms of Article 98 (8) of the Constitution. 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 15^th  Amendment to the Constitution introduced Article 99A, which provides for 29 members to be declared elected on the basis of the total number of votes polled by the respective political parties or independent groups at the national level (the National List). Thus, we have a proportional system at the district level and a proportional system at the national level based on the same poll.

In terms of section 99 (6) (a) of the Constitution, a recognized political party or independent group polling less than 1/20  (5%) of the total votes polled within the district is disqualified and the balance valid votes are reckoned for allocation of seats on the basis of the proportional computation.

In each district, the political party or independent group securing the highest number of votes is entitled to have one member declared elected (the Bonus seat). The balance number of Members is declared elected on the basis of the proportion of votes obtained by the political party or the independent group.

The 14^th  Amendment to the Constitution introduced a system of preferential voting on the basis of which, the particular candidates to be returned from within each political party or independent group is determined. Each voter is entitled to indicate his\her preference within the list of candidates of the political party or group to which the vote is cast. Three such preferences could be indicated on the basis of the number assigned to a particular candidate after the nomination paper is accepted by the Returning Officer. The counting of preference votes takes place at the second stage of the counting process in order to determine the particular candidates who would be declared elected from within each political party or independent group.

  

Parliament Election  (2020)

 

Parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka were held on 5 August 2020 to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka's 16th Parliament. 16,263,885 people were eligible to vote in the election along with the participation of 31.95% young voters.

Prior to the election, a coronavirus-proof mock election was also conducted by the Election Commission in June 2020 as a trial run in order to comply with the health guidelines. The incumbent party Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance claimed a landslide victory in the election claiming the majority winning 145 seats, while Samagi Jana Balawegaya won a total of 54 seats and National People's Power won 3 seats. The main opposition United National Party suffered their worst ever landslide defeat in the history as they claimed only one seat and was placed at fourth position in the elections.

The election was postponed at least twice due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country before finalizing the date as of 5^th of August 2020.

The reports revealed that the overall voter turnout was estimated at 70%, comparatively less than the turnout during the 2015 Sri Lankan parliamentary election mainly due to the impact of the COVID-19. The vote counting started on 6^th August 2020 at around 9AM. The new parliament is expected to reconvene on 14^th of August 2020.

In November 2018, the date was briefly moved forward by more than a year to 5 January 2019 after President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved parliament during a constitutional crisis and called for a snap election. The Supreme Court later suspended the dissolution and ordered a halt to the snap election, effectively moving the election's date back to 2020.

 

 

2020 Parliamentary election summary

 

Summary of the 2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary election
Alliances and parties		Votes	%	Seats
				District	National	Total
	Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance	6,853,690	59.09%	128	17	145
	SamagiJana Balawegaya	2,771,980	23.90%	47	7	54
	Tamil National Alliance	327,168	2.82%	9	1	10
	National People's Power	445,958	3.84%	2	1	3
	Tamil National People's Front	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	66,579	0.57%	1	0	1
	Muslim National Alliance	55,981	0.48%	1	0	1
	Tamil People's National Alliance	51,301	0.44%	1	0	1
	All Ceylon Makkal Congress	43,319	0.37%	1	0	1
	National Congress	39,272	0.34%	1	0	1
	Sri Lanka Muslim Congress	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	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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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