2001 Sri Lankan parliamentary election

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2001 Sri Lankan parliamentary election

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| <- 2000 | 5 December 2001 | 2004 ->

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<- outgoing members

elected members ->

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All 225 seats in the Parliament of Sri Lanka
113 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout| 76.03%
|  | First party  | Second party  | Third party

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|
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|  |  |
Leader  | Ranil Wickremesinghe | Chandrika Kumaratunga | Somawansa Amarasinghe
Party  | UNF | PA | JVP
Leader since  | 1994  | 1994  | 1990
Leader's seat  | Colombo District | n/a  | n/a
Last election  | 40.22%, 89 seats  | 45.11%, 107 seats  | 6.00%, 10 seats
Seats won  | 109  | 77  | 16
Seat change  |  20  |  30  |  6
Popular vote  | 4,086,026  | 3,330,815  | 815,353
Percentage  | 45.62%  | 37.19%  | 9.10%
Swing  | 5.40%  | 7.92%  |  3.10%

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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

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

## Background[edit]

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[edit]

* 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[edit]

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

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

Party| Votes| %| Seats
District| National| Total
| United National Front[a]| 4,086,026| 45.62| 96| 13| 109
| People's Alliance[b]| 3,330,815| 37.19| 66| 11| 77
| Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna| 815,353| 9.10| 13| 3| 16
| Tamil National Alliance[c]| 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
| Sinhala Heritage| 50,665| 0.57| 0| 0| 0
| New Left Front| 45,901| 0.51| 0| 0| 0
| Democratic People's Liberation Front| 16,669| 0.19| 1| 0| 1
| United Socialist Party| 9,455| 0.11| 0| 0| 0
| National Democratic Party| 6,952| 0.08| 0| 0| 0
| Democratic Left Front| 6,214| 0.07| 0| 0| 0
| United Lalith Front| 3,851| 0.04| 0| 0| 0
| Eksath Sinhala Maha Sabha| 2,771| 0.03| 0| 0| 0
| Muslim United Liberation Front| 2,644| 0.03| 0| 0| 0
| Motherland People's Party| 1,630| 0.02| 0| 0| 0
| Jathika Sangwardhena Peramuna| 1,624| 0.02| 0| 0| 0
| Bahujana Nidahas Peramuna| 1,361| 0.02| 0| 0| 0
| Liberal Party| 1,152| 0.01| 0| 0| 0
| Ruhunu Janatha Party| 1,089| 0.01| 0| 0| 0
| Democratic United National Front| 978| 0.01| 0| 0| 0
| Sri Lanka Progressive Front| 854| 0.01| 0| 0| 0
| Sri Lanka Muslim Katchi| 802| 0.01| 0| 0| 0
| Sri Lanka National Front| 719| 0.01| 0| 0| 0
| Socialist Equality Party| 243| 0.00| 0| 0| 0
| Eksath Lanka Podujana Pakshaya| 56| 0.00| 0| 0| 0
| Independents| 41,752| 0.47| 0| 0| 0
Total| 8,955,869| 100.00| 196| 29| 225
Valid votes| 8,955,869| 94.77|
Invalid/blank votes| 493,944| 5.23|
Total votes| 9,449,813| 100.00|
Registered voters/turnout| 12,428,762| 76.03|
Source: Election Commission

### By province[edit]

Main article: Results of the 2001 Sri Lankan general election by province

### By electoral district[edit]

Main article: Results of the 2001 Sri Lankan general election by electoral district

### Elected members[edit]

Main article: 12th Sri Lankan Parliament

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ Contested under the name and symbol of the United National Party. Also consisted of the Ceylon Workers' Congress, the Democratic People's Front, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (except in Ampara, Batticaloa and Jaffna, where it ran alone), the United National Party and the Up-Country People's Front.
2. ^ Consisting of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, the Desha Vimukthi Janatha Party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, the*National Unity Alliance, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya.
3. ^ Contested under the name and symbol of Tamil United Liberation Front. Also consisted of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization.

## References[edit]

* "Parliamentary General Election 2001 – All Island Result Composition of Parliament". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 2010-08-26.
* "Parliamentary General Election 2001 – All Island Result". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 2009-01-07.
* "Parliamentary General Election 2001 – Final District Results". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 2009-01-07.
* "General Election 2001 Preferences" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-03-04.
* "2001 General Election Results". LankaNewspapers.com. 12 July 2023.
* "Table 42 Parliament Election (Party) (2001)". Sri Lanka Statistics. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
* "Table 42a Parliament Election (Electoral District) (2001)". Sri Lanka Statistics. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
* "Table 42b Parliament Election (Elected Members) (2001)". Sri Lanka Statistics. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 12 October 2010. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
* "Table 42c Parliamentary General Election (Electoral District) (2001)". Sri Lanka Statistics. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
* "Sri Lanka Parliamentary Chamber: Parliament Elections Held in 2001". Inter-Parliamentary Union.
* "2001 - Parliamentary General Election". Manthree.com.
* "DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS OF 6 DECEMBER 2001". Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive.
* "DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS OF 6 DECEMBER 2001". Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive.

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