Presidential election in Sri Lanka 2015

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The 2015 presidential election in Sri Lanka took place on January 8, 2015. The election was won by the opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena .

prehistory

Mahinda Rajapaksa (2014)

In the last presidential election in 2010 , incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa won ahead of his main rival General Sarath Fonseka with around 58 percent of the vote. The election was an early election and Rajapaksa had benefited from a popularity spike after he had finally succeeded under his presidency in defeating the rebel organization of the LTTE ( Tamil Tigers ) and thus ending the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka . The parliamentary election on April 8, 2010 was also won by the UPFA , the Rajapaksa party. On September 8, 2010, the parliament, dominated by the supporters of Rajapaksa, approved a constitutional amendment that would allow a third term of office for a president. This was previously prohibited by the constitution. This constitutional amendment, which was apparently intended to allow Rajapaksa to run again, met with criticism from the opposition, as did the treatment of opposition leader Fonseka, who was temporarily imprisoned after the 2010 elections at Rajapaksa's instigation. The president was accused of an increasingly authoritarian behavior. Internationally, reports of persistent human rights violations, particularly against the Tamil minority in the country, have also been registered with concern.

Election announcement and formation of the opposition

Maithripala Sirisena, top candidate of the opposition (2015)

On October 20, 2014, the Minister of Information announced the holding of presidential elections in January 2015 without specifying an exact date. The election date was almost two years before the end of Rajapaksa's six-year term in office, which would have lasted until 2016. The constitutional conformity of a third Rajapaksa term in office was contested by some political opponents, since the corresponding constitutional amendment had taken place after Rajapaksa had already been elected for two terms. Rajapaksa therefore asked the Sri Lankan Supreme Court for an opinion in November 2014 and received a positive decision that a third term was possible. However, critics objected that the Supreme Court had been occupied by the president with his supporters. The election announcement took the opposition by surprise. There was no generally recognized opposition leader and thus initially no clear opponent against President Rajapaksa. On November 21, 2014, Maithripala Sirisena , Minister of Health in the Rajapaksa government and General Secretary of Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), announced that he was leaving the SLFP and announced that he would run against Rajapaksa as the top candidate of the opposition United National Party . At the public announcement of his candidacy at a press conference, he appeared together with former Prime Minister and SLFP Senior President Chandrika Kumaratunga and 3 other cabinet ministers. Sirisena accused Rajapaksa of leading the country towards a dictatorship and accused him of abuse of office and nepotism . The entire economy of the country and every aspect of Sri Lankan society is controlled by members of the presidential family. Corruption and legal uncertainty prevail in the country. Sirisena was promptly released from his ministerial office and officially excluded from the SLFP along with his supporters.

On November 21, 2014, January 8, 2015 was announced as the election date. Candidate nominations were to be submitted by December 8, 2014 at the latest.

Candidates

Opposition rally of the People's Movement for Democracy on November 18, 2014 in Colombo

A total of 19 candidates were allowed to vote. In the Sri Lankan electoral authority listing, these were the following:

No candidate Political party
1. Baththaramulle Seelarathana Thero Jana Setha Peramuna
2. MB Thaminimulla Okkoma Wasiyo Okkoma Rajawaru Sanvidanaya
3. Pani Wijesiriwardena Socialist Equality Party
4th Sirithunga Jayasooriya United Socialist Party
5. Percy Mahinda Rajapaksa United People's Freedom Alliance
6th Jayantha Kulathunga Eksath Lanka Maha Sabha Pakshaya
7th Vimal Gee ganage Sri Lanka National Front
8th. Pallewatte Gamarala layer Maithreepala Yapa Sirisena New Democratic Front
9. IM Ilyaas More independent
10. Ibrahim Nisthar Mohamad Miflar United Peace Front
11. Polgampala Ralalage Chaminda Anuruddha Polgampala More independent
12. Duminda Nagamuwa Frontline Socialist Party
13. ASP Liyanage Sri Lanka Labor Party
14th Sundharam Mahendran Nawa Sama Samaja Party
15th Katugampala Appuhamilage Prasanna Priyankara Democratic National Movement
16. Rajapaksha Aarachchilage Namal Ajith Rajapaksha Our National Front
17th Rathnayaka Aarachchige Sirisena Patriotic National Front
18th Sarath Manamendra Nawa Sihala Urumaya
19th Ruwanthilaka Peduru Aarachchi Eksath Lanka Podujana Pakshaya

17 candidates belonged to recognized political parties and two candidates ran as independent individual candidates.

Course of the election campaign

As already known from previous elections in Sri Lanka, the election campaign was marked by violent clashes from the start. Most of the attacks affected opposition politicians, whose helpers were physically assaulted or threatened.

The opposition has alleged that state facilities are being used to campaign for the incumbent president. For example, the state road construction authority has delegated construction workers to hang up election posters for Rajapaksa. Public funds have been used to produce propaganda material for the government.

The following parties have expressed their support for Rajapaksa's candidacy: the Ceylon Workers' Congress (a party elected primarily by Tamil plantation workers), the Sri Lankan Communist Party and a number of smaller parties with one to three members in the Sri Lankan parliament are represented. Like his predecessor Sarath Fonseka, Sirisena ran in the previous election in 2010 as the top candidate of the New Democratic Front (NDF) under the campaign symbol of the swan .

On November 18, 2014 by left buddhist - Sinhala -run monks Jathika Hela Urumaya the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and support Sirisena decided a little later. The Democratic Party of former army chief and 2010 presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka has declared its support for Sirisena along with several other smaller parties.

On December 1, 2014, Sirisena, together with numerous political opposition groups and politicians, including ex-President Chandrika Kumaratunga , UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe , and Sarath Fonsekas, announced a declaration of intent in which his election manifesto was expressed. Sirisena promised to convert the Sri Lankan presidential system into a parliamentary system in which the head of government is directly responsible to parliament. He promised the early holding of new parliamentary elections and the formation of an all-party coalition government. The 18th amendment to the constitution passed under Rajapaksa, which removes the limitation of the presidential term of office, should be reversed. He also promised further political and economic reforms.

Election mode

The election takes place after instant runoff voting , i. H. the voter has the option of placing up to three candidates in sequence on the voting slip. If none of the candidates placed first on the ballot papers achieve the majority in the first count, the candidate with the fewest first placements will be eliminated from all ballot papers. The following candidates all move up one position. Then the first-placed candidates are counted again and the entire process is repeated. This is repeated until a first-placed candidate has an absolute majority. The consequence of this right to vote is that votes for candidates of “subordinate preference” are not completely ignored, but are taken into account, so that It may be that a candidate who does not come first in the first round wins the election.

The election on January 8, 2015 was largely orderly and without major incidents.

Results

The results were gradually announced by the Department of Elections of Sri Lanka.

Nationwide results

The turnout was 81.52%. 140,925 votes (1.15%) were invalid.

candidate be right %
Maithripala Sirisena 6.217.162 51.28%
Mahinda Rajapaksa 5,768,090 47.58%
Arachige Rathnayaka Sirisena 18,174 0.15%
Namal Rajapaksa 15,726 0.13%
Ibrahim Miflar 14,379 0.12%
Panagoda Don Prince Soloman Anura Liyanage 14,351 0.12%
Ruwanthilaka Peduru Arachchi 12,436 0.10%
Aithurus Mohamed Illias 10,618 0.09%
Duminda Nagamuwa 9,941 0.08%
Sirithunga Jayasuriya 8,840 0.07%
Sarath Manamendra 6,875 0.06%
Pani Wijesiriwardena 4,277 0.04%
Anuruddha Polgampala 4,260 0.04%
Sundaram Mahendran 4,047 0.03%
MB Theminimulla 3,846 0.03%
Baththaramulle Seelarathana Thero 3,750 0.03%
Prasanna Priyankara 2,793 0.02%
Jayantha Kulathunga 2,061 0.02%
Wimal Geeganage 1,826 0.02%
Valid votes 12.123.452 100.00%
Valid votes 12,123,452
(98.85%)
Invalid votes 140,925
(1.15%)
Votes cast 12,264,377
(81.52%)
Registered voters 15,044,490

Results in the constituencies

The following table shows the official election results by constituency. The electoral districts ( election districts ) are identical to the districts of Sri Lanka , except for Vanni and Jaffna .

Districts with a majority vote for Sirisena
Districts with a majority vote for Rajapaksa
Constituency Rajapaksa Sirisena Other electoral
participation
be right % be right % be right %
Colombo 562,614 43.40 725.073 55.93 8,673 0.67 81.49
Gampaha 664,347 49.49 669.007 49.83 9,142 0.68 80.77
Kalutara 395,890 52.65 349,404 46.46 6,690 0.89 82.08
Mahanuwara 378,585 44.23 466.994 54.56 10,329 1.21 79.71
Matale 158,880 51.41 145.928 47.22 4.214 1.36 78.76
Nuwara Eliya 145.339 34.06 272,605 63.88 8,822 2.07 79.25
bile 377.126 55.64 293.994 43.37 6,691 0.99 80.46
Matara 297,823 57.81 212,435 41.24 4,892 0.95 83.36
Hambantota 243.295 63.02 138,708 35.93 4,073 1.05 81.23
Jaffna 74,454 21.85 253,574 74.42 12,723 3.73 64.22
Vanni 34,377 19.07 141,417 78.47 4,431 2.46 72.57
Batticaloa 41,631 16.22 209,422 81.62 5,533 2.16 69.30
Digamadulla 121,027 33.82 233,360 65.22 3,430 0.96 73.85
Trincomalee 52.111 26.67 140.338 71.84 2,907 1.49 72.50
Kurunegala 556,868 53.46 476,602 45.76 8,154 0.78 78.82
Puttalam 197,751 48.97 202.073 50.04 4.027 1.00 72.50
Anuradhapura 281.161 53.59 238,407 45.44 5,065 0.97 77.98
Polonnauwa 105,640 41.27 147.974 57.80 2,382 0.93 79.38
Badulla 249.243 49.15 249,524 49.21 8,303 1.64 79.56
Monaragala 172,745 61.45 105.276 37.45 3,095 1.10 79.90
Ratnapura 379.053 55.74 292,514 43.01 8,517 1.25 84.90
Kegalle 278.130 51.82 252,533 47.05 6,108 1.14 83.60
Overall result 5,768,090 47.58 6.217.162 51.28 138.201 1.14 81.52

Voting cards

Analysis of the choice and further development

The election result marked a marked change in Sri Lankan politics. This had been determined by the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa for more than ten years. Rajapaksa had long been respected by the Sinhalese majority population as a strong man who had defeated the Tamil rebel organizations in the north of the island. He then ruled the country with an authoritarian hand. Formally, democratic conditions prevailed, but opposition members were not infrequently exposed to intimidation and physical attacks from supporters of Rajapaksa, so that journalistic criticism was often not expressed in the Sinhala and Tamil, but only in the English-language press, which, however, was not very widespread in the country Has. Public political discussions therefore often focused on politically innocuous topics such as education and upbringing. A proper reappraisal of the numerous human rights crimes during the time of the civil war did not take place under Rajapaksa. This also rejected independent international investigations by the United Nations in this regard , as requested by human rights organizations. As in the previous presidential election in 2010, the majority of the Tamil and Muslim minorities voted for the opposition candidate Sirisena - not because he had made them any concrete promises, but out of opposition to Rajapaksa. Compared to the last election in 2010, the significantly higher voter turnout in the Tamil areas in the north of the island was also striking.

The main reason for Sirisena's profit was probably that the strong concentration of power in the hands of the Rajapaksa family had become uncanny for many Sinhalese. Rajapaksa had made numerous government and business positions to his family members. According to popular estimates, about 70% of Sri Lanka's economy was controlled by the Rajapaksas family clan.

Prior to the election, fears had been expressed that if Rajapaksa lost, he would not easily vacate his chair. Rajapaksa admitted his electoral defeat without further ado and pledged to ensure an orderly transfer of power. The election winner Sirisena thanked Rajapaksa for making an orderly election possible. Sirisena was sworn in on January 9, 2015.

Sirisena announced that it would hold parliamentary elections on April 23, 2015. The election date was later postponed to August 17, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Sri Lanka Presidential Election 2015  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

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