Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2004

13th Sri Lankan parliamentary election

2 April 2004
All 225 seats to the Parliament of Sri Lanka 113 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	75.96%
First party Second party   Leader Chandrika Kumaratunga Ranil Wickremesinghe Party United People's Freedom Alliance United National Front Leader since 1994 1994 Leader's seat n/a Colombo District Last election 77 seats, 37.20% 109 seats, 45.60% Seats won 105 82 Seat change 12 27 Popular vote 4,223,970 3,504,200 Percentage 45.60% 37.83% Swing -0.01% -7.73%
250px Winners of polling divisions. UPFA in blue and UNF in green.
Prime Minister before election Ranil Wickremesinghe United National Front Prime Minister-designate Mahinda Rajapaksa United People's Freedom Alliance

Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 2 April 2004. The ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was defeated, winning only eighty two seats in the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament. The opposition United People's Freedom Alliance won 105 seats. While this was eight seats short of an absolute majority, the Alliance was able to form a government.

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

Parties

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 belong to the People's Alliance, such as the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, the Democratic United National Front, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya, later joined UPFA.

In the 2001 elections, the People's Alliance and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna had fought separately. Then the JVP won 9.1% of the vote and sixteen seats. At this election it is reported than as many as thirty nine JVP members won seats as UPFA candidates.

The runner-up in the election was the United National Front (UNF), the front led by the United National Party. In addition to the UNP, the 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 Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP). The Democratic Peoples Liberation Front (the political wing of PLOTE) lost their parliamentary representation.

Campaign

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe's UNF government had been in limbo since October 2003, when President Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency and took three key cabinet portfolios for her party. During the campaign, she argued that Wickremasinghe had been too soft on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and promised to take a harder line. The UNF, for its part, stressed the economic gains that had been made with the ceasefire and the need to find a negotiated solution to the civil war.

Voting

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, Sri Lanka and allegations of fraud in the North, the election was calm and orderly.

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.

Results

Summary

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.

 Summary of the 2004 Sri Lankan parliamentary election

Alliances and parties		Votes	%	Seats
				District	National	Total
	United People's Freedom Alliance Communist Party of Sri Lanka Desha Vimukthi Janatha Party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Lanka Sama Samaja Party Mahajana Eksath Peramuna National Muslim Congress National Unity Alliance Sri Lanka Freedom Party Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya	4,223,970	45.60%	92	13	105
	United National Front Ceylon Workers' Congress Democratic People's Front Sri Lanka Muslim Congress United National Party	3,504,200	37.83%	71	11	82
	Tamil National Alliance All Ceylon Tamil Congress Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization	633,654	6.84%	20	2	22
	Jathika Hela Urumaya	554,076	5.97%	7	2	9
	Sri Lanka Muslim Congress	186,876	2.02%	4	1	5
	Up-Country People's Front	49,728	0.54%	1	0	1
	Eelam People's Democratic Party	24,955	0.27%	1	0	1
	Independents	15,865	0.17%	0	0	0
	National Development Front	14,956	0.16%	0	0	0
	United Socialist Party	14,660	0.16%	0	0	0
	Ceylon Democratic Unity Alliance	10,736	0.12%	0	0	0
	New Left Front	8,461	0.09%	0	0	0
	Democratic People's Liberation Front People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam	7,326	0.08%	0	0	0
	United Muslim People's Alliance	3,779	0.04%	0	0	0
	United Lalith Front	3,773	0.04%	0	0	0
	National People's Party	1,540	0.02%	0	0	0
	Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya	1,401	0.02%	0	0	0
	Swarajya	1,136	0.01%	0	0	0
	Sri Lanka Progressive Front	814	0.01%	0	0	0
	Ruhuna People's Party	590	0.01%	0	0	0
	Sri Lanka National Front	493	0.01%	0	0	0
	Liberal Party	413	0.00%	0	0	0
	Sri Lanka Muslim Party	382	0.00%	0	0	0
	Socialist Equality Party	159	0.00%	0	0	0
	Democratic United National Front	141	0.00%	0	0	0
Valid Votes		9,262,732	100.00%	196	29	225
Rejected Votes		534,948
Total Polled		9,797,680
Registered Electors		12,899,139
Turnout		75.96%

Province

Further information: Results of the 2004 Sri Lankan general election by province

Electoral District

Further information: Results of the 2004 Sri Lankan general election 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	176,971 (54.0%) 4 seats	82,945 (25.3%) 2 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

Elected members

Further information: 13th Sri Lankan Parliament