2008–09 Sri Lankan provincial council elections

5th Sri Lankan provincial council election

← 2004

10 May 2008, 23 August 2008, 14 February 2009
25 April 2009, 8 August 2009, 10 October 2009

2012 →

417 seats across 8 provincial councils

Turnout

65.84%

	First party	Second party

Leader	Mahinda Rajapaksa	Ranil Wickremasinghe
Party	UPFA	UNP
Popular vote	5,137,170	2,609,386
Percentage	63.10%	32.05%
Councillors	269	131
Councils	8	0

Winners of polling divisions. UPFA in blue and UNP in green.

Sri Lanka has held several rounds of Provincial Council elections in 2008 and 2009 to elect members to eight of the country’s Provincial Councils. The decision to hold elections in different parts of the country on separate days was a break in the usual practice, which is to hold elections for the whole country on the same day. For each provincial council, members are elected to serve a five-year term. A chief minister for the province is chosen by the elected members.

The first election was held in May 2008 to elect members to Sri Lanka's Eastern Provincial Council. In August 2008, elections were held in the North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces. In 2009, elections were held for Central and North Western Provincial Councils in February, for the Western Provincial Council in April, for the Uva Provincial Council in August and for the Southern Provincial Council in October. No election was held for the ninth provincial council, Northern, which had been governed directly by the national government since it was demerged from the North Eastern Provincial Council in January 2007.

The elections were largely seen as a referendum on the handling of the civil war by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse. Rajapakse's United People's Freedom Alliance and its allies registered resounding victories over the opposition United National Party in all the elections.

Background

Main article: Provinces of Sri Lanka

In an attempt to end the Sri Lankan Civil War the Indo-Lanka Accord was signed on 29 July 1987. One of the requirements of the accord was that the Sri Lankan government to devolve powers to the provinces. Accordingly on 14 November 1987 the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act No 42 of 1987. On 3 February 1988 nine provincial councils were created by order. The first elections for provincial councils took place on 28 April 1988 in North Central, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, and Uva provinces. On 2 June 1988 elections were held for provincial councils for Central, Southern and Western provinces. The United National Party (UNP), which was in power nationally, won control of all seven provincial councils.

The Indo-Lanka Accord also required the merger of the Eastern and Northern provinces into one administrative unit. The accord required a referendum to be held by 31 December 1988 in the Eastern Province to decide whether the merger should be permanent. Crucially, the accord allowed the Sri Lankan president to postpone the referendum at his discretion. On September 2 and 8 1988 President Jayewardene issued proclamations enabling the Eastern and Northern provinces to be one administrative unit administered by one elected council, creating the North Eastern Province. Elections in the newly merged North Eastern Province were held on 19 November 1988. The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, an Indian backed paramilitary group, won control of the North Eastern provincial council.

On 1 March 1990, just as the Indian Peace Keeping Force were preparing to withdraw from Sri Lanka, Annamalai Varatharajah Perumal, Chief Minister of the North Eastern Province, moved a motion in the North Eastern Provincial Council declaring an independent Eelam. President Premadasa reacted to Permual's UDI by dissolving the provincial council and imposing direct rule on the province.

The 2nd Sri Lankan provincial council election was held in 1993 in seven provinces. The UNP retained control of six provincial councils but lost control of the largest provincial council, Western, to the opposition People's Alliance. A special election was held in Southern Province in 1994 after some UNP provincial councillors defected to the opposition. The PA won the election and took control of the Southern Provincial Council.

The 3rd Sri Lankan provincial council election was held in 1999 in seven provinces. The PA, which was now in power nationally, managed to win the majority of seats in two provinces (North Central and North Western). It was also able to form a majority administration in the other five provinces with the support of smaller parties such as the Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) . The UNP regained control of the Central Provincial Council in 2002 after the CWC councillors crossed over to the opposition.

The 4th Sri Lankan provincial council election was held in 2004 in seven provinces. The United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the successor to the PA, won all seven provinces.

Results

The UPFA won all eight provinces.

Overall

Party / Alliance	Votes	%	Seats
United People's Freedom Alliance	5,137,170	63.10%	269
United National Party	2,609,386	32.05%	131
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	234,442	2.88%	12
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress	60,091	0.74%	2
Independents	15,789	0.19%	0
Democratic Unity Alliance	12,512	0.15%	1
Up-Country People's Front	10,645	0.13%	1
Ceylon Workers' Congress	10,163	0.12%	0
United Socialist Party	9,024	0.11%	0
Tamil Democratic National Alliance	7,714	0.09%	1
United National Alliance	7,098	0.09%	0
Eelam People's Democratic Party	5,418	0.07%	0
Left Front	4,771	0.06%	0
National Development Front	3,558	0.04%	0
National Congress	3,404	0.04%	0
Eelavar Democratic Front	2,275	0.03%	0
Ruhuna People's Party	1,618	0.02%	0
United Lanka People's Party	911	0.01%	0
New Sinhala Heritage	838	0.01%	0
United Lanka Great Council	803	0.01%	0
Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya	700	0.01%	0
Socialist Equality Party	503	0.01%	0
Sri Lanka Progressive Front	475	0.01%	0
Janasetha Peramuna	306	0.00%	0
People's Front of Liberation Tigers	383	0.00%	0
Patriotic National Front	379	0.00%	0
All Lanka Tamil United Front	378	0.00%	0
National People's Party	302	0.00%	0
Democratic United National Front	107	0.00%	0
Muslim Liberation Front	49	0.00%	0
Sri Lanka National Front	30	0.00%	0
Liberal Party	20	0.00%	0
Valid Votes	8,141,262	100.00%	417
Rejected Votes	427,543
Total Polled	8,568,805
Registered Electors	13,013,731
Turnout	65.84%
1. CWC contested with the UPFA in Central and Uva provinces. 2. SLMC contested with the UNP in Eastern province.

Central Province

This section is transcluded from 2009 Sri Lanka Central and North Western Provincial Council elections. (edit | history)

Summary of the February 14, 2009 Sri Lanka Central Provincial Council election results
Party		Kandy		Matale		Nuwara Eliya		Seats			Popular Vote
Party		Votes	Seats	Votes	Seats	Votes	Seats	2004	2009	+/−	Vote	%
	United People's Freedom Alliance	363,490	18	140,295	7	146,418	9	30	36	+6	650,203	59.53%
	United National Party	237,827	12	56,009	3	128,289	7	26	22	−4	422,125	38.65%
Total		643,617	30	218,406	10	309,666	16	58	58	0	1,167,336	100%
Voter turnout: 66.84%
Source: Sri Lanka Department of Elections Notes: 1. Includes 2 bonus seats

Eastern Province

This section is transcluded from 2008 Sri Lanka Eastern Provincial Council election. (edit | history)

Summary of the May 10, 2008 Sri Lanka Eastern Provincial Council election results
Alliances and parties		Ampara			Batticaloa			Trincomalee			Bonus Seats	Total
Alliances and parties		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Bonus Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	United People's Freedom Alliance (ACMC, NC, SLFP, TMVP et al.)	144,247	52.96%	8	105,341	58.09%	6	59,298	42.99%	4	2	308,886	52.21%	20
	United National Party (SLMC, UNP)	121,272	44.52%	6	58,602	32.31%	4	70,858	51.37%	5	0	250,732	42.38%	15
	Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	4,745	1.74%	0	379	0.21%	0	4,266	3.09%	1	0	9,390	1.59%	1
	Tamil Democratic National Alliance (EPRLF(P), PLOTE, TULF et al.)				7,714	4.25%	1				0	7,714	1.30%	1
	Eelam People's Democratic Party				5,418	2.99%	0				0	5,418	0.92%	0
	Independent Groups	737	0.27%	0	823	0.45%	0	1,073	0.78%	0	0	2,633	0.45%	0
	United Socialist Party	296	0.11%	0	943	0.52%	0	1,309	0.95%	0	0	2,548	0.43%	0
	Eelavar Democratic Front (EROS)				1,816	1.00%	0	459	0.33%	0	0	2,275	0.38%	0
	United National Alliance	597	0.22%	0							0	597	0.10%	0
	People's Front of Liberation Tigers	63	0.02%	0	157	0.09%	0	163	0.12%	0	0	383	0.06%	0
	All Lanka Tamil United Front							378	0.27%	0	0	378	0.06%	0
	New Sinhala Heritage	312	0.11%	0							0	312	0.05%	0
	National Development Front	100	0.04%	0				89	0.06%	0	0	189	0.03%	0
	Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya	11	0.00%	0	85	0.05%	0	13	0.01%	0	0	109	0.02%	0
	Muslim Liberation Front				39	0.02%	0				0	39	0.01%	0
	Sri Lanka National Front				21	0.01%	0	9	0.01%	0	0	30	0.01%	0
	Sri Lanka Progressive Front				17	0.01%	0	9	0.01%	0	0	26	0.00%	0
	Ruhuna People's Party	9	0.00%	0				5	0.00%	0	0	14	0.00%	0
	Liberal Party	3	0.00%	0							0	3	0.00%	0
Valid Votes		272,392	100.00%	14	181,355	100.00%	11	137,929	100.00%	10	2	591,676	100.00%	37
Rejected Votes		20,997			21,088			12,695				54,780
Total Polled		293,389			202,443			150,624				646,456
Registered Electors		409,308			330,950			242,463				982,721
Turnout		71.68%			61.17%			62.12%				65.78%
Source: Sri Lanka Department of Elections Archived 2012-02-19 at the Wayback Machine Notes: 1. Includes 2 bonus seats

North Central Province

Summary of the August 23, 2008 Sri Lanka North Central Provincial Council election results
Party		Anuradhapura		Polonnaruwa		Seats			Popular Vote
Party		Votes	Seats	Votes	Seats	2004	2009	+/−	Vote	%
	United People's Freedom Alliance	199,547	12	107,910	6	22	20	−2	307,457	56.37%
	United National Party	142,019	8	63,265	4	10	12	+2	205,284	37.64%
	Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	19,357	1	7,381	0	0	1	+1	26,738	4.90%
Total		382,677	21	190,845	10	33	33	0	573,522	100%
Voter turnout: 67.75%
Source: Sri Lanka Department of Elections Notes: 1. Includes 2 bonus seats 2. Contested in 2004 as part of the UPFA

North Western Province

This section is transcluded from 2009 Sri Lanka Central and North Western Provincial Council elections. (edit | history)

Summary of the February 14, 2009 Sri Lanka North Western Provincial Council election results
Party		Kurunegala		Puttalam		Seats			Popular Vote
Party		Votes	Seats	Votes	Seats	2004	2009	+/−	Vote	%
	United People's Freedom Alliance	497,366	24	171,377	11	31	37	+6	668,743	69.43%
	United National Party	193,548	9	76,799	5	19	14	−5	270,347	28.07%
	Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	16,084	1	4,344	0	0	1	+1	20,428	2.12%
Total		735,846	34	274,014	16	52	52	0	1,009,860	100%
Voter turnout: 60.77%
Source: Sri Lanka Department of Elections Notes: 1. Includes 2 bonus seats 2. Contested in 2004 as part of the UPFA

Sabaragamuwa Province

Summary of the August 23, 2008 Sri Lanka Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council election results
Party		Ratnapura		Polonnaruwa		Seats			Popular Vote
Party		Votes	Seats	Votes	Seats	2004	2009	+/−	Vote	%
	United People's Freedom Alliance	260,218	13	212,571	7	28	25	−3	472,789	55.34%
	United National Party	191,996	10	154,325	7	15	17	+2	346,321	40.53%
	Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	9,703	1	9,365	1	0	2	+2	19,068	2.23%
Total		497,013	24	404,660	18	44	44	0	901,673	100%
Voter turnout: 68.37%
Source: Sri Lanka Department of Elections Notes: 1. Includes 2 bonus seats 2. Contested in 2004 as part of the UPFA

Southern Province

Results of the 6th Southern provincial council election held on 10 October 2009:

Party / Alliance	Galle			Hambantota			Matara			Bonus Seats	Total
Party / Alliance	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Bonus Seats	Votes	%	Seats
United People's Freedom Alliance	354,000	68.34%	16	192,961	66.95%	8	257,110	67.97%	12	2	804,071	67.88%	38
United National Party	140,175	27.06%	6	62,391	21.65%	3	94,614	25.01%	5		297,180	25.09%	14
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	19,958	3.85%	1	31,734	11.01%	1	20,687	5.47%	1		72,379	6.11%	3
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress	2,273	0.44%	0				4,280	1.13%	0		6,553	0.55%	0
Independents	260	0.05%	0	389	0.13%	0	343	0.09%	0		992	0.08%	0
United National Alliance	500	0.10%	0				371	0.10%	0		871	0.07%	0
United Socialist Party	366	0.07%	0	221	0.08%	0	218	0.06%	0		805	0.07%	0
National Development Front				174	0.06%	0	294	0.08%	0		468	0.04%	0
United Lanka People's Party	57	0.01%	0	217	0.08%	0					274	0.02%	0
Janasetha Peramuna	89	0.02%	0	52	0.02%	0	98	0.03%	0		239	0.02%	0
United Lanka Great Council	19	0.00%	0	55	0.02%	0	36	0.01%	0		110	0.01%	0
Socialist Equality Party	95	0.02%	0								95	0.01%	0
Left Front	92	0.02%	0								92	0.01%	0
Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya	36	0.01%	0	23	0.01%	0	32	0.01%	0		91	0.01%	0
Sri Lanka Progressive Front	38	0.01%	0	14	0.00%	0	34	0.01%	0		86	0.01%	0
Democratic Unity Alliance							61	0.02%	0		61	0.01%	0
Ruhuna People's Party	21	0.00%	0				31	0.01%	0		52	0.00%	0
National People's Party	49	0.01%	0								49	0.00%	0
Patriotic National Front							43	0.01%	0		43	0.00%	0
Valid Votes	518,028	100.00%	23	288,231	100.00%	12	378,252	100.00%	18	2	1,184,511	100.00%	55
Rejected Votes	21,952			13,403			16,727				52,082
Total Polled	539,980			301,634			394,979				1,236,593
Registered Electors	761,815			421,186			578,858				1,761,859
Turnout	70.88%			71.62%			68.23%				70.19%

Uva Province

The Uva Provincial Council was prematurely dissolved on 29 May 2009 by governor Nanda Mathew. The term of the council was due to expire in August. The Election Commissioner subsequently announced that nominations will be received from June 17 to June 23, to elect 21 members from the Badulla District and 11 members from the Monaragala District. After the close of nominations, the date of the elections was announced as 8 August 2009.

Results of the 5th Uva provincial council election held on 8 August 2009:

Party / Alliance	Badulla			Monaragala			Bonus Seats	Total
Party / Alliance	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Bonus Seats	Votes	%	Seats
United People's Freedom Alliance	259,069	67.79%	14	159,837	81.32%	9	2	418,906	72.39%	25
United National Party	98,635	25.81%	5	30,509	15.52%	2		129,144	22.32%	7
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	9,007	2.36%	1	5,632	2.87%	0		14,639	2.53%	1
Up-Country People's Front	9,227	2.41%	1					9,227	1.59%	1
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress	4,150	1.09%	0					4,150	0.72%	0
United National Alliance	503	0.13%	0					503	0.09%	0
Democratic Unity Alliance	481	0.13%	0					481	0.08%	0
National Development Front	247	0.06%	0	226	0.11%	0		473	0.08%	0
United Socialist Party	276	0.07%	0	153	0.08%	0		429	0.07%	0
Independents	337	0.09%	0	90	0.05%	0		427	0.07%	0
United Lanka Great Council	56	0.01%	0	62	0.03%	0		118	0.02%	0
Janasetha Peramuna	67	0.02%	0					67	0.01%	0
Patriotic National Front	44	0.01%	0	20	0.01%	0		64	0.01%	0
Sri Lanka Progressive Front	31	0.01%	0	10	0.01%	0		41	0.01%	0
Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya	30	0.01%	0	10	0.01%	0		40	0.01%	0
Valid Votes	382,160	100.00%	21	196,549	100.00%	11	2	578,709	100.00%	34
Rejected Votes	24,455			9,969				34,424
Total Polled	406,615			206,518				613,133
Registered Electors	574,814			300,642				875,456
Turnout	70.74%			68.69%				70.04%

Western Province

Summary of the April 24, 2009 Sri Lanka Western Provincial Council election results
Party		Colombo		Gampaha		Kaluthara		Seats			Popular Vote
Party		Votes	Seats	Votes	Seats	Votes	Seats	2004	2009	+/−	Vote	%
	United People's Freedom Alliance	530,370	25	624,530	27	351,215	14	59	68	+9	1,506,115	64.73%
	United National Party	327,571	15	236,256	10	124,426	5	39	30	−9	688,253	29.58%
	Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	21,787	1	21,491	1	13,106	1	0	3	+3	56,384	2.43%
	Sri Lanka Muslim Congress	18,978	1	18,014	1	12,396	0	4	2	−2	49,388	2.12%
	Democratic Unity Alliance	8,584	1	1,424	0	1,962	0	1	1	0	11,970	0.51%
Total		957,035	43	932,360	39	526,484	20	104	104	0	2,415,879	100%
Voter turnout: 63.24%
Source: Sri Lanka Department of Elections Notes: 1. Includes 2 bonus seats 2. Contested in 2004 as part of the UPFA

References

"PAST PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTION RESULTS". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008.

"War on terror vote won by MR". The Island. 25 August 2008. Archived from the original on 28 September 2008. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
"Editorial: "UNPRECEDENTED VICTORY"". The Daily News. 27 April 2009. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
"UPFA up, up and away". The Daily Mirror. 27 April 2009. Archived from the original on 9 June 2009. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
^ "Indo Sri Lanka Agreement, 1987". TamilNation.
"Introduction". Official Website of the Government of Sri Lanka. Government of Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 7 July 2009.
"Amendments to the 1978 Constitution". Official Website of the Government of Sri Lanka. Government of Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009.
^ "North-East merger illegal: SC". LankaNewspapers.com. 17 October 2006.
"Ethnic Conflict of Sri Lanka: Time Line - From Independence to 1999". International Centre for Ethnic Studies9. Archived from the original on 12 December 2009.
Ferdinando, Shamindra (10 September 2000). "I'm no traitor, says Perumal". Sunday Island. Archived from the original on 1 May 2009.
Sri Nissanka, Jayantha (30 April 2002). "Central Provincial Council : UNF takes over". Daily News, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
"Provincial Council Elections 2008 Final District Results: - Eastern Province". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 20 December 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
"Uva PC dissolved". The Daily News. 29 May 2009. Archived from the original on 13 June 2009. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
"Southern, Uva PCs to be dissolved". The Daily Mirror. 29 April 2009. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
"Nominations from June 17 to 23". The Daily News. 6 June 2009. Archived from the original on 15 June 2009. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
"Uva PC election on August 8". Ada Derana. 24 June 2009. Retrieved 24 June 2009.

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