stringtranslate.com

2001 Sri Lankan parliamentary election

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

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

Results

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.

By province

By electoral district

Elected members

Notes

  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