Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2001

12th Sri Lankan parliamentary election

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 20 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

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. [1]. 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. [2]

Parties

• Democratic People's Liberation Front (DFLP)
• Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP)
• People's Alliance (Bahejana Nidasa Pakhsaya, BNP), which consisted of:
  • Communist Party of Sri Lanka
  • Democratic United National Front
  • Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Sri Lanka Equal Society Party, LSSP)
  • Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Sri Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya, SLNP)
  • Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya (Sri Lanka People's Party, SLMP)
• Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front, JVP)
• Sri Lanka Muslim Congress
• Tamil United Liberation Front (Tamil Vimuktasi Peramuna, TVP)
• United National Front, which consisted of:
  • United National Party (Eksath Jathika Pakshaya, UNP)
  • Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC)

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

Alliances and parties		Votes	%	Seats
				District	National	Total
	United National Front Ceylon Workers' Congress Democratic People's Front Sri Lanka Muslim Congress United National Party Up-Country People's Front	4,086,026	45.62%	96	13	109
	People's Alliance Communist Party of Sri Lanka Desha Vimukthi Janatha Party Lanka Sama Samaja Party Mahajana Eksath Peramuna National Unity Alliance Sri Lanka Freedom Party Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya	3,330,815	37.19%	66	11	77
	Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	815,353	9.10%	13	3	16
	Tamil National Alliance All Ceylon Tamil Congress Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization Tamil United Liberation Front	348,164	3.89%	14	1	15
	Sri Lanka Muslim Congress{	105,346	1.18%	4	1	5
	Eelam People's Democratic Party	72,783	0.81%	2	0	2
	Democratic People's Liberation Front People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam	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