Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2015

Background

The last parliamentary election was held in April 2010. The incumbent United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), buoyed by the military defeat of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, won a landslide victory, securing 144 seats in the legislature. In September 2010 the UPFA, with the support of some opposition MPs, passed the eighteenth amendment to the constitution, increasing the powers of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, leader of the UPFA, and removing the two term limit on the presidency. The UPFA was also able to impeach the chief justice, allowing Rajapaksa to appoint an ally as chief justice.

In November 2014 Rajapaksa called a presidential election, two years ahead of schedule, seeking an unprecedented third term. In a surprise move Maithripala Sirisena, Rajapaksa's Minister of Health, was put up as the common opposition candidate. At the election in January 2015 Sirisena inflicted a shock defeat on Rajapaksa. Sirisena subsequently formed a government dominated by the opposition United National Party (UNP). In March 2015 Sirisena formed a national government by appointing ministers from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the main constituent of the UPFA.

In his election manifesto Sirisena had promised a 100-day reform program after which parliament would be dissolved on 23 April 2015. However, Srisena and his government faced opposition from a large contingent of legislators loyal to Rajapaksa, and, although some reforms, such as the curtailing of presidential powers and re-introducing the two term limit, were introduced by the passing of the nineteenth amendment, others, notably electoral reforms, were not carried out. With electoral reforms stalled and the 100-day reform program falling behind schedule, the UNP started calling for parliamentary elections. Sirisena dissolved parliament on 26 June 2015.

Electoral system

196 MPs were elected from 22 multi-member electoral districts using the D'Hondt method with an open list, a proportional representation system. The remaining 29 seats were allocated to contesting parties and independent groups in proportion to their share of the national vote.

Details

Nominations took place between 6 July 2015 and 13 July 2015. Postal voting took place on 5 August 2015 and 6 August 2015 except for school teachers who cast their postal votes on 3 August 2015. The date of the election was set for 17 August 2015. 15,044,490 Sri Lankans were eligible to vote at the election. 12,314 polling stations and 1,600 counting centres were used. Nearly 200,000 state employees and over 70,000 police officers were deployed on election duties.

The new parliament is expected to meet on 1 September 2015.

Contesting parties

A total of 6,151 candidates from 21 registered political parties (3,653) and 201 independent groups (2,498) compteted for the 196 district seats. The nominations of 12 registered political parties and 24 independent groups were rejected. The UPFA, United National Front for Good Governance and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) contested in all 22 electoral districts.

United People's Freedom Alliance

The ruling UPFA suffered a series of defections to the opposition during the 2015 presidential election. After the election the UPFA and its main constituent, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), pledged support for newly elected President Sirisena's reform program. Sirisena became chairman/leader of the SLFP on 16 January 2015 and of the UPFA on 14 March 2015. However, large sections of the UPFA/SLFP remained loyal to former President Rajapaksa. They called for Rajapaksa to be made the UPFA's prime ministerial candidate at the forthcoming parliamentary election. This alarmed those members of the UPFA/SLPF who had supported Sirisena during the presidential election. They urged Sirisena to prevent Rajapaksa's return to politics but Sirisena remained silent on the matter. After the parliamentary election was called it was announced that Rajapaksa would contest but not as the prime ministerial candidate which would be decided after the election. Feeling "betrayed" by Sirisena, his supporters in the UPFA/SLFP allied themselves with the UNP to form the United National Front for Good Governance.

United National Front for Good Governance

The UNP had contested past parliamentary elections in alliance with smaller parties representing ethnic minorities but many of these had defected to the UPFA after the election. Prior to this election being called the UNP had claimed it would contest the election on its own. However, after the election had been called it started forming alliances with minority parties including the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA). On 12 July 2015 the UNP, SLMC and TPA signed agreements with the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and anti-Rajapaksa members of the SLFP to form the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) to contest the election. The All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) also contested with the UNFGG. The UNFGG is believed to have had the tacit support of President Sirisena but officially he has pledged to be neutral.

The UNFGG had originally been established by the renaming of the JHU after it left the UPFA. It was registered as a political party with the diamond symbol. Despite this the UNFGG contested the election under the name and elephant symbol of the UNP. UNFGG general-secretary Champika Ranawaka has stated that the JHU name and its conch symbol will be revived after the election.

Other parties

The Tamil National Alliance, the largest party representing the Sri Lankan Tamils, contested in the five electoral districts in the north and east and was aiming to win 20 seats. The JVP, which had contested the two previous parliamentary elections in alliances, contested this election on its own. Sarath Fonseka's Democratic Party contested in all but three electoral districts.

The SLMC, despite being a member of the UNFGG, contested on its own in two electoral districts. Similarly, the ACMC contested on its own in one electoral district. The Ceylon Workers' Congress, a member of the UPFA, contested on its own in three electoral districts.

The Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist Bodu Bala Sena allied with the United Lanka Great Council (Eksath Lanka Maha Sabha) to contest as the Buddhist People's Front (Bodu Jana Peramuna) in 16 electoral districts.

Violence and violations of election laws

Thushara Devalegama, a UNP supporter, was attacked and killed by an unidentified group on 29 June 2015 in Nivithigala, Ratnapura District. Two people (Siththi Maheema and Bulathsinghalalage Niroshan Sampath) were killed and around dozen others injured when gunmen arriving in two vehicles opened fire into a crowd attending an election rally for UNP candidate Ravi Karunanayake at Kotahena on 31 July 2015. According to the police the incident was a clash between rival underworld gangs. Jamaldeen Ameer, a supporter of UNFGG candidate Ali Ameer, was shot dead by two gunmen in Oddamavadi, Valaichchenai on 15 August 2015.

Election monitors received 1,500 complaints of assaults, misuse of state resources and other violations of election laws and over 700 were arrested for election-related offences.

Results

The UNFGG became the largest group in Parliament after securing 45.66% of votes and 106 seats whilst the UPFA won 42.38% of votes and 95 seats. Rajapaksa quickly conceded defeat in his attempt to become Prime Minister.

The result left the UNFGG seven seats short of a majority in Parliament. However, on 20 August 2015 the central committee of the SLFP agreed to form a national government with the UNP for two years. Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Prime Minister on 21 August 2015. Immediately afterwards a memorandum of understanding to work together in Parliament was signed by acting SLFP general secretary Duminda Dissanayake and UNP general secretary Kabir Hashim.

International reaction