Parliamentary election in Sri Lanka in 2004

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(Share of votes in%)

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

45.6

37.83

6.84

5.97

2.02

0.54

0.27

0.7

UPFA ^a

UNP ^b

TNA ^c

JHU ^d

SLMC

UCPF

EPDP

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2001

 % p

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

+8.41

-7.79

+2.95

+5.40

+0.84

+0.54

-0.54

-9.81

UPFA ^a

UNP ^b

TNA ^c

JHU ^d

SLMC

UCPF

EPDP

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^a The results of the UPFA are compared with those of the People's Alliance in the 2001 election.

^b The United National Front (UNF) competed under the name and symbols of the United National Party (UNP).

^c The Tamil National Alliance (TNA),founded in 2001, ran under the party symbols of Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK). Their results are compared to those of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) from 2001.

^d JHU was founded in February 2004. Here are the results compared to the results of Sinhala Urumaya in the 2001 election.

The parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka in 2004 took place on April 2, 2004. The election was a new election three years early after President Chandrika Kumaratunga ( Sri Lanka Freedom Party , SLFP) dissolved parliament on February 7th. Because of the civil war , tens of thousands of citizens, mostly Tamils, were unable to cast their votes because the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam obstructed the election despite the official ceasefire and many displaced persons were unable to get to their polling stations. Attacks and violent clashes between government forces and rebels increased in the run-up to the elections.

64,000 police officers guarded the polling stations on election day, around 25,000 local and international election observers were also present. Apart from a few allegations of electoral fraud in the Northern Province, the electoral process itself was described as largely regular. The turnout was around 75%.

The United People's Freedom Alliance , President Kamaratunga's electoral alliance, won over 4 million votes and 105 seats (+12), while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's previously ruling United National Front won 3.5 million votes and 82 seats.

prehistory

In the previous parliamentary election in December 2001 , the party alliance of the United National Front led by the United National Party (UNP) and the allied Muslim Congress won 114 of the 225 seats in parliament and thus a narrow majority. The UNF coalition was also supported by the 15 parliamentarian faction of the Tamil National Alliance . After that, a government was formed under the leadership of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (UNP). The situation was that the Prime Minister and President Chandrika Kumaratunga belonged to rival political parties. To make matters worse, the personal relationship between Wickremesinghe and Kumaratunga was marked by deep mistrust.

In February 2002, a ceasefire between the government and the Tamil rebel organization LTTE ('Tamil Tigers') came into force. The peace talks, which were initially very promising, stalled in April 2003. President Kumaratunga accused the Wickremesinghe government of making too many concessions to the LTTE and of endangering the unity of Sri Lanka and Sinhala interests. On November 4, she dismissed three key cabinet ministers (for defense, home affairs, information ministry) and placed their departments under her own responsibility. Wickremesinghe then found himself unable to continue negotiations with the LTTE without his ministers. Finally, the president dissolved parliament and scheduled new elections for April 2, 2004.

In January 2004, on the initiative of the President, a party alliance, the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), was formed between the SLFP and the radical-Marxist-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

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.

Election campaign

The use of election posters was prohibited for the first time in the election campaign, which may have contributed to the fact that the election campaign was less dominated by violent clashes than in the previous elections. One of the main themes was the stalled negotiations with the LTTE, which led to the polarization of public opinion and the gains of nationalist groups. Another area of ​​dispute was economic policy. The Wickremesinghe government had pursued a liberalization of the economy, some of which was sharply criticized by the opposition because it only benefits a small minority. Unemployment and a lack of economic prospects continued to form serious problems. The Prime Minister was accused from various quarters that he had not acted vigorously enough against the corruption rampant in the government apparatus.

Result

Absolute or relative majorities in the 22 constituencies: United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) United National Party (UNP) Tamil National Alliance (TNA)




Majorities in the 160 constituencies: United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) United National Party (UNP) Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Sri Lanka Muslim Congress





Overall result

The UPFA became the strongest parliamentary group with 105 out of 225 seats (46.7%), but missed an absolute majority. The UNP was the second largest party (82 seats, 36.4%), followed by TNA (22 seats, 9.8%), JHU (9 seats, 4%) and SLMC (5 seats, 2.2%). One seat each went to the left-wing socialist parties UCPF and EPDP

Party / electoral alliance		Abbreviation	be right	percent	Seats
					nationwide	Constituencies	all in all
	United People's Freedom Alliance	UPFA	4,223,970	45.60	13	92	105
	United National Party	UNP	3,504,200	37.83	11	71	82
	Tamil National Alliance	TNA	633.654	6.84	2	20th	22nd
	Jathika Hela Urumaya (National Heritage Party)	JHU	552.724	5.97	2	7th	9
	Sri Lanka Muslim Congress	SLMC	186,876	2.02	1	4th	5
	Up-Country People's Front	UCPF	49,728	0.54	0	1	1
	Eelam People's Democratic Party	EPDP	24,955	0.27	0	1	1
All the rest together			86,625	0.94	0	0	0
total			9,262,732	100.0	29	196	225

Results by constituency

At constituency level, the UPFA won 92 seats (46.9% of the seats), the UNP 71 (36.2%), the TNA 20 (10.2%), the JHU 7 (3.6%), the SLMC 4 (2.0%) and the UCPF and EPDP each have one seat (0.5%).

Based on the votes, the UPFA achieved an absolute majority in 11 of the 22 constituencies. The UNP only achieved this in one constituency ( Nuwara Eliya ). TNA candidates ran only in the constituencies of the Northern and Eastern Provinces and achieved high approval ratings in the northern Tamil constituencies of Jaffna, Batticaloa and Vanni, and lower ratings in the western constituencies of Trincomalee and Digamadulla. The SLMC ran for candidates only in the Eastern Province and in the northern constituency of Jaffna and won a total of 4 seats in the Eastern Province. JHU was particularly successful in the Western Province. The voter turnout was by far the lowest in the constituency of Jaffna at 47.38%, which was due to the tense security situation.

Constituency	Valid votes	Seats	UPFA		UNP		TNA		JHU		SLMC		Other		Wahlbe- pation
			%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats
Colombo	1,057,966	20th	39.20	8th	41.76	9	-	0	18.02	3	-	0	1.02	0	74.71
Gampaha	990.002	17th	51.51	9	37.13	6th	-	0	10.36	2	-	0	1.0	0	77.68
Kalutara	563.019	10	51.72	6th	37.78	3	-	0	10.06	1	-	0	0.44	0	79.58
Kandy	627.866	12	42.71	5	49.99	6th	-	0	6.72	1	-	0	0.58	0	76.46
Matale	220.062	5	49.19	3	45.73	2	-	0	4.01	0	-	0	1.07	0	76.66
Nuwara Eliya	327,609	7th	25.32	2	54.02	4th	-	0	1.36	0	-	0	19.3	1	80.70
bile	541.511	10	56.58	6th	38.67	4th	-	0	4.22	0	-	0	0.53	0	79.79
Matara	400.233	8th	60.27	5	34.89	3	-	0	4.05	0	-	0	0.79	0	76.84
Hambantota	279.310	7th	64.05	5	35.40	2	-	0	0.12	0	-	0	0.43	0	77.28
Jaffna	284.026	9	-	-	-	-	90.60	8th	-	-	0.70	0	8.7	1	47.38
Vanni	140.377	6th	5.17	0	23.95	1	64.71	5	0.05	0	-	0	6.12	0	66.64
Batticaloa	241.375	5	10.88	0	2.55	0	66.71	4th	0.01	0	17.87	1	1.98	0	83.58
Digamadulla	290,361	7th	38.49	3	14.51	1	19.13	1	1.14	0	26.37	2	0.36	0	81.42
Trincomalee	182.794	4th	16.99	1	8.59	0	37.72	2	0.43	0	35.66	1	0.61	0	85.44
Kurunegala	793,647	16	51.93	9	42.94	7th	-	0	4.72	0	-	0	0.41	0	76.55
Puttalam	289,763	8th	49.28	5	46.64	3	-	0	3.45	0	-	0	0.63	0	69.15
Anuradhapura	372.125	8th	57.22	5	39.94	3	-	0	2.16	0	-	0	0.68	0	76.52
Polonnauwa	185.261	5	57.35	3	40.84	2	-	0	1.30	0	-	0	0.51	0	77.91
Badulla	370.178	8th	48.26	3	49.09	5	-	0	1.87	0	-	0	0.78	0	78.33
Monaragala	192.113	5	61.14	3	36.99	2	-	0	1.39	0	-	0	0.48	0	78.00
Ratnapura	492.003	10	53.14	6th	41.77	4th	-	0	4.23	0	-	0	0.86	0	80.42
Kegalle	421.131	9	50.88	5	44.32	4th	-	0	4.28	0	-	0	0.52	0	78.35
Overall result	9,248,152	196	45.60	92	37.83	71	6.84	20th	5.97	7th	2.02	4th	0.97	2	75.96

1. ↑ ^{a b} For the Up-Country People's Front 15.18% and 1 seat.
2. ↑ ^{a b} For the Eelam People's Democratic Party 6.55% and 1 seat.

After the election

After the election, President Kamaratunga entrusted the former opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa (SLFP) with the management of the government as Prime Minister. The new parliament met for the first time on April 22nd, 2004, when WJM Lokubandara was elected President of Parliament.

After the dissolution of parliament by Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka since 2005, in February 2010, the next parliamentary elections took place on April 8 and 20, 2010.

literature

• Carola Stein: Parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka. In: Gerhard Wahlers (Hrsg.): International information of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. 5/2004, pp. 101-116. (detailed analysis of the previous history and the choice itself)
• W. Mishler, S. Finkel, P. Peiris: The 2005 presidential and 2004 parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka. Notes on Recent Elections. In: Electoral Studies. 26, 2007, pp. 196-231. doi: 10.1016 / j.electstud.2006.03.005

Web links

• Election results on the Department of Elections website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} 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. ^ ^{A b c d} Carola Stein: Parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka. International information from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, June 9, 2004, accessed on July 25, 2015 .