8th Parliament of Sri Lanka

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The 8th Parliament of Sri Lanka (1st Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka) was a meeting of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, with the membership determined by the results of the 1977 parliamentary election held on 21 July 1977. The parliament met for the first time on 22 July 1977 and was dissolved on 8 March 1989.

The United National Party won a 5⁄6 majority to form a government under J. R. Jayewardene. Later Jayawardane introduced a new constitution to Sri Lanka and was elected as the 1st Executive President of Sri Lanka.

On 22 December 1982, the 1982 Sri Lankan national referendum was held, giving the people of Sri Lanka the option to extend the life of parliament by 6 years without an election. It was the first and so far only national referendum to be held in Sri Lanka. The referendum was called for by President Jayawardene, who had been elected to a fresh six-year term as president in October 1982. The government extended their term to stay in power in 1983 without an election and stayed in power until 1989.

The UNP won the largest landslide in Sri Lankan history (due to the first-past-the-post system). For the first time, a Tamil party won the second-highest number of seats in Parliament and became the Official Opposition.

Abeyratne Pilapitiya of the UNP was elected MP for Kalawana, but was subsequently unseated in an election petition. Sarath Muttetuwegama of the Communist Party was returned to Parliament in the ensuing by-election.

The 1977 election was the only one ever held under the 1972 constitution.^[1]

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	United National Party	3,179,221	50.92	140
	Sri Lanka Freedom Party	1,855,331	29.72	8
	Tamil United Liberation Front	421,488	6.75	18
	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	225,317	3.61	0
	Communist Party of Sri Lanka	123,856	1.98	0
	Ceylon Workers' Congress	62,707	1.00	1
	Mahajana Eksath Peramuna	22,639	0.36	0
	Independents	353,014	5.65	1
Total		6,243,573	100.00	168
Registered voters/turnout		6,667,589	–
Source: Kusaka Research Institute

Source ^[2][3]