General election in Sri Lanka 2000

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(Share of votes in%)

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

45.11

40.22

6.00

2.29

1.48

1.23

0.59

3.08

PA

UNP

JVP ^c

NUA ^d

SU ^e

TULF

EPDP

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 1994

 % p

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

-3.83

-3.82

+4.87

+0.49

+1.48

-0.44

+0.45

-0.80

PA

UNP

JVP ^c

NUA ^d

SU ^e

TULF

EPDP

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^c The results of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are compared with those of the Sri Lanka People's Front 1994.

^d The National Unity Alliance (NUA) was a Muslim party alliance in which the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) was the largest single party. Here the results are compared with the results of the SLMC 1994.

^e Sinhala Urumaya (SU) was founded in April 2000.

The parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka in 2000 took place on October 10, 2000 . As a result, the People's Alliance government lost its previous parliamentary majority, but continued to run government in the form of a minority government.

prehistory

President Chandrika Kumaratunga

Ranil Wickremesinghe , UNP opposition leader (2003)

The People's Alliance (PA), led by the SLFP , had won the previous parliamentary election in 1994 and thus ended the uninterrupted rule of the United National Party (UNP) since 1977 . That same year the PA also won the presidential election and Chandrika Kumaratunga became president. Kumaratunga also won the following presidential election in 1999 .

On August 18, 2000, one week before the end of the six-year legislative period , the President dissolved parliament and the government announced new elections for October 10, 2000. Shortly before the dissolution, a debate about a planned constitutional amendment had started. The draft of a new constitution drawn up by the government envisaged the transformation of the existing presidential system into a parliamentary system . In doing so, the role of the Prime Minister and Parliament should be strengthened vis-à-vis the President. In addition, the draft constitution provided for a decentralization of governmental power with local self-government ( devolution ). This should also benefit the Tamil minority in the northern parts of the country, where they formed the majority of the population. President Kumaratunga hoped to win the necessary two-thirds majority in parliament in the upcoming election. Nationalist Sinhalese groups in particular agitated against such a constitutional reform. In talks with the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe , the president tried to reach a non-partisan consensus on the question of constitutional reform, but this only succeeded to a very limited extent.

The main topic of the election campaign was the civil war , which had been a heavy burden on the country since 1983. The northern, predominantly Tamil areas were only partially or not at all under the control of the government, but were controlled by the fighters of the LTTE ( "Tamil Tigers" ). The LTTE was far inferior to the regular Sri Lankan army in terms of manpower and weapons equipment and had therefore mainly focused on guerrilla and terrorist activities. The LTTE did not shrink from recruiting children either. Their suicide bombers , who carried the terror far into the Sinhala south, were feared . On January 8, 2000, 8 people died in a suicide attack on the Prime Minister's office in Colombo . On June 7, 2000, a suicide bomber killed the Minister for Industry, CV Goonerat, and 25 other people with him. On the other hand, the military and police acted rigorously against all terrorist suspects. Reports of torture and illegal killings of Tamils ​​by the armed forces have repeatedly been registered with concern by international human rights organizations.

On 21/22 In April 2000, the government troops suffered a severe and propagandistic defeat when the Sri Lankan military base on the strategically important elephant pass, which controlled access to the Jaffna Peninsula , was attacked and captured by LTTE fighters. About 200 army soldiers and 150 LTTE fighters were killed in the course of the fighting. The LTTE was able to destroy or capture numerous heavy weapons and armored vehicles in the attack. The elephant pass could only be recaptured by the Tamil Tigers on January 9, 2009 in a large-scale counter-offensive by the Sri Lankan army.

Election mode

→ Main article : Elections in Sri Lanka

The choice was made according to the mode that has been in force in Sri Lanka since 1989. 196 of the 225 members of parliament were elected in a total of 22 multi-person constituencies. A separate 5% blocking clause applied in each constituency. The voters had the opportunity to sort the candidates on the party lists according to first, second and third preference. A further 29 parliamentary seats were determined by proportional representation based on the relative nationwide share of the votes of the parties.

Nationwide result

The following lists the nationwide results with the parliamentary seats won.

Party / electoral alliance		Abbreviation	be right	%	Seats
					nationwide	Constituencies	total
	People's Alliance	PA	3,900,901	45.11	13	94	107
	United National Party	UNP	3,477,770	40.22	12	77	89
	Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	JVP	518.774	6.00	2	8th	10
	National Unity Alliance	NUA	197.983	2.29	1	3	4th
	Sinhala Urumaya	SU	127,863	1.48	1	0	1
	Tamil United Liberation Front	TULF	106.033	1.23	0	5	5
	Eelam People's Democratic Party	EPDP	50,890	0.59	0	4th	4th
	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	ACTC	27,323	0.32	0	1	1
	Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization	TELO	26,112	0.30	0	3	3
	Independent Group 2 Digamadulla	ND5_D13	19,812	0.23	0	1	1
All the rest together			194.207	2.25	0	0	0
total			8,647,668	100.0	29	196	225
Invalid or empty ballot papers (as a percentage of those submitted)			481,155 (5.27%)
Total votes cast (turnout)			9,128,823 (75.62%)
Registered voters			12,071,062

Results by constituency

The PA became the strongest party in 15 of the 22 constituencies, the UNP in 4, TULF in 2 and TELO in one.

Constituency	Valid votes	Seats	PA		UNP		JVP		NUA		TULF		Other		Wahlbe- pation
			%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats
Colombo	1,014,220	20th	38.86	8th	43.45	10	7.70	2	2.67	0	-	0	7.32	0	76.04
Gampaha	961.709	18th	48.87	10	39.34	7th	7.60	1	1.15	0	-	0	3.04	0	79.71
Kalutara	544,581	10	46.86	5	39.89	4th	7.05	1	2.19	0	-	0	4.01	0	81.73
Mahanuwara	604.928	12	46.66	6th	40.27	5	3.56	0	5.29	1	-	0	4.22	0	79.59
Matale	218.097	5	50.53	3	42.11	2	4.89	0	-	0	-	0	2.47	0	79.89
Nuwara Eliya	300,806	7th	52.53	4th	42.05	3	2.09	0	-	0	-	0	3.33	0	82.86
bile	528.348	10	50.08	5	40.14	4th	7.88	1	-	0	-	0	1.90	0	81.22
Matara	395.764	8th	51.47	5	37.11	2	9.79	1	-	0	-	0	1.63	0	79.27
Hambantota	276.127	7th	39.95	2	43.12	4th	15.23	1	-	0	-	0	1.70	0	80.53
Jaffna	119,069	9	-	0	9.60	1	0.14	0	0.85	0	27.59	3	61.82	5	21.32
Vanni	83.193	6th	9.42	1	13.88	1	0.53	0	19.04	1	5.58	0	51.55	3	42.13
Batticaloa	186,441	5	8.86	1	15.64	1	0.16	0	28.77	1	29.20	2	17.37	0	71.74
Digamadulla	266,800	7th	51.13	4th	38.09	2	2.13	0	-	0	-	0	8.65	1	80.36
Trincomalee	133,130	4th	40.46	3	35.08	1	2.48	0	-	0	10.58	0	11.4	0	68.52
Kurunegala	760.757	15th	47.16	8th	43.72	6th	5.36	1	-	0	-	0	3.76	0	79.05
Puttalam	286,695	8th	48.40	5	41.36	3	3.93	0	4.30	0	-	0	2.01	0	73.15
Anuradhapura	350,582	8th	48.33	5	41.26	3	6.07	0	2.67	0	-	0	1.67	0	78.52
Polonnauwa	177.871	5	44.99	2	46.33	3	6.27	0	1.11	0	-	0	1.30	0	81.91
Badulla	361.016	8th	42.71	3	46.36	5	4.55	0	1.44	0	-	0	4.94	0	81.84
Monaragala	183.931	5	49.69	3	41.27	2	7.15	0	-	0	-	0	1.89	0	83.01
Ratnapura	482.254	10	50.63	6th	42.30	4th	4.61	0	-	0	-	0	2.46	0	83.50
Kegalle	411.412	9	48.88	5	42.69	4th	5.35	0	0.07	0	-	0	3.01	0	79.62
Overall result	8,647,668	196	45.11	94	40.22	77	6.00	8th	2.29	3	1.23	5	2.92	9	75.62

1. ↑ ^{a b} For the EPDP 35.00% and 4 seats, for the ACTC 8.94% and 1 seat and the DPLF 4.08% and 0 seats.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Thereof 26.08% and 3 seats for the TELO, 8.37% for the DPLF.
3. ↑ Thereof 4.84% for the DPLF and 3.74% for the ACTC.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Thereof for the Digamadulla Independent Group 2 7.42% and 1 mandate, for the DPLF 4.84% and 0 seats.
5. ↑ 3.35% for the Ceylon Workers Congress.

Constituency cards

• 

  Majorities (parties with the strongest vote) in the 22 constituencies: United National Party (UNP) People's Alliance (PA) Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO)
  
  
  
  

• 

  Majorities (parties with the highest voting power) in the 160 electoral districts: United National Party (UNP) UNP, turnout below 2% People's Alliance (PA) PA, turnout below 2% Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) United National Alliance (NUA) Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Procedure and evaluation of the election

The election campaign was marked by violence. According to official statistics, there were more than 2,000 incidents and 43 politically motivated murders during the election campaign. Other sources gave even higher numbers. The EU observer mission named the behavior of the two major parties as the cause of these riots. Their representatives lacked the necessary leadership skills and often fueled the politically charged atmosphere with inflammatory and irresponsible speeches. This self-responsible damage to democratic culture was compounded by the misuse of state resources for election campaign purposes, the misappropriation of police forces, unequal access to the media and the existence of private armed groups.

The EU observer mission praised the role of the central election commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake and the Sri Lankan electoral commission, both of which had done their work “well prepared and thoroughly and professionally at all times”.

As in all previous elections since the outbreak of the civil war in 1983, voter turnout was very low in the areas of the north mainly affected by the civil war. The LTTE had called for an election boycott.

After the election

As a result, the People's Alliance coalition suffered significant losses and lost its previous parliamentary majority. However, the opposition UNP was unable to muster a stable majority for a government in the newly elected parliament. The National Unity Alliance and some Tamil MPs agreed to vote with the government selectively, so that Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake remained in office as head of a PA minority government.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Parliamentary Elections Results. Department of Elections, accessed on October 19, 2019 (English, the 5 percent threshold clause did not apply nationwide, but always based on the respective constituency). 
2. ↑ SRI LANKA Parliamentary Chamber: Parliament ELECTIONS HELD IN 2000. Inter-parliamentary Union IPU, accessed on November 3, 2016 (English). 
3. ↑ Lawrence Sáez: SRI LANKA IN 2000: The Politics of Despair . Ed .: Asian Survey. tape 41 , no. 1 . University of California Press, ISSN  0004-4687 , pp. 116–121 , doi : 10.1525 / as.2001.41.1.116 (English, soas.ac.uk [PDF]).
4. ^ DBS Jeyaraj: The taking of Elephant Pass . In: frontline . tape 17 , no. May 10 , 2000 (English, frontline.in [accessed November 3, 2016] May 13-26, 2000).
5. ↑ Army 'takes key Sri Lanka pass'. BBC News, January 9, 2009, accessed November 3, 2016 . 
6. ↑ PARLIAMENTARY GENERAL ELECTION - 2001. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Department of Elections, archived from the original on March 4, 2009 ; accessed on August 8, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Final Report of the European Union's Observation Mission to Sri Lanka's December 5, 2001 Parliamentary Election. (PDF) EU ELECTION OBSERVATION MISSION TO SRI LANKA, 2001, accessed on November 3, 2016 (English).