Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2001

12th Sri Lankan parliamentary election
Sri Lanka
5 December 2001
All 225 seats to the Parliament of Sri Lanka
113 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout 76.03%
  First party Second party
 
Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe Chandrika Kumaratunga
Party United National Front People's Alliance
Leader since 1994 1994
Leader's seat Colombo District n/a
Last election 89 Seats, 40.22% 107 Seats, 45.11%
Seats won 109 77
Seat change Increase 20 Decrease 30
Popular vote 4,086,026 3,330,815
Percentage 45.62% 37.19%

Winners of polling divisions. UNF in green and PA in blue.
Prime Minister before election

Ratnasiri Wickremanayake
People's Alliance

 Prime Minister-designate

Ranil Wickremesinghe
United National Front

Sri Lanka
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Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on December 5, 2001, just a little over a year after the last elections in October 2000.

Background

The People's Alliance (PA) government faced a blow when most of the SLMC MPs left the coalition. President Chandrika Kumaratunga tried to recruit the JVP to replace it, but this angered several PA MPs, thirteen of which defected to the opposition. A no-confidence motion was prepared; to forestall this, Kumaratunga called the election.

More than 1,300 incidents of election violence were reported during the campaign. . Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was nearly killed by a suicide bomber. Overall, 60 people were killed in election-related violence, including 14 on polling day.

Parties

Results

Kumaratunga's People's Alliance lost the resulting general election, which saw the United National Front win the legislative power. The UNP's leader, Ranil Wickremasinghe, became the new prime minister.

Having a President and Prime Minister from different parties proved to be unstable, and Parliament was dissolved again in 2004, leading to yet another general election.

Summary


 Summary of the 2001 Sri Lankan parliamentary election[1][2]
Alliances and parties Votes % Seats
District National Total
  United National Front[lower-alpha 1] 4,086,026 45.62% 96 13 109
  People's Alliance 3,330,815 37.19% 66 11 77
  Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna 815,353 9.10% 13 3 16
  Tamil National Alliance[lower-alpha 3] 348,164 3.89% 14 1 15
  Sri Lanka Muslim Congress{[lower-alpha 2] 105,346 1.18% 4 1 5
  Eelam People's Democratic Party 72,783 0.81% 2 0 2
  Democratic People's Liberation Front 16,669 0.19% 1 0 1
  Sinhala Heritage 50,665 0.57% 0 0 0
  New Left Front 45,901 0.51% 0 0 0
  Independents 41,752 0.47% 0 0 0
Others 42,395 0.47% 0 0 0
Valid Votes 8,955,869 100.00% 196 29 225
Rejected Votes 493,944
Total Polled 9,449,813
Registered Electors 12,428,762
Turnout 76.03%

Province

Results of the 2001 Sri Lankan general election by province

Electoral District

Results of the 2001 Sri Lankan general election by electoral district

Elected members

Further information: 12th Sri Lankan Parliament

Notes

  1. ↑ UNF contested under the name and symbol of United National Party.
  2. 1 2 SLMC contested separately in three districts (Ampara, Batticaloa and Jaffna) and with the UNF in all other districts.
  3. ↑ TNA contested under the name and symbol of Tamil United Liberation Front.

References

  1. ↑ "Parliamentary General Election 2001 - All Island Result". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka.
  2. ↑ "Parliamentary General Election 2001 - Composition of Parliament". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka.
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