Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 2 April 2004. The ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was defeated, winning only eighty two seats in the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament. The opposition United People's Freedom Alliance won 105 seats. While this was eight seats short of an absolute majority, the Alliance was able to form a government.

On 6 April, President Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed former Minister of Labour Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister.

Parties

The United People's Freedom Alliance was formed as an alliance between President Kumaratunga's party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), and the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Other parties that belong to the People's Alliance, such as the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, the Democratic United National Front, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya, later joined UPFA.

In the 2001 elections, the People's Alliance and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna had fought separately. Then the JVP won 9.1% of the vote and sixteen seats. At this election it is reported than as many as thirty nine JVP members won seats as UPFA candidates.

The runner-up in the election was the United National Front (UNF), the front led by the United National Party. In addition to the UNP, the UNF also had candidates from minor parties such as Ceylon Workers Congress.

Other parties winning seats were the Buddhist, Sinhala nationalist outfit Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the pro-LTTE alliance Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP). The Democratic Peoples Liberation Front (the political wing of PLOTE) lost their parliamentary representation.

Campaign

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe's UNF government had been in limbo since October 2003, when President Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency and took three key cabinet portfolios for her party. During the campaign, she argued that Wickremasinghe had been too soft on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and promised to take a harder line. The UNF, for its part, stressed the economic gains that had been made with the ceasefire and the need to find a negotiated solution to the civil war.

Voting

Polling booths opened at 07:00 local time and remained open until 16:00 (01:00 to 10:00 UTC). A total of 10,670 polling stations were installed to receive votes from 12.9 million eligible voters. Voter turnout was high, at around 75%.

The backdrop to polling day was tense, with continued guerrilla activity by Tamil Tiger separatists and five politically motivated murders in the run-up to the election. However, except for a slightly lower turnout in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and allegations of fraud in the North, the election was calm and orderly.

Sri Lanka's Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said that despite reported cases of electoral malpractice in certain polling stations in six electoral districts, there would be no fresh elections in these areas and the results issued by the Commission were final.

Results The United People's Freedom Alliance vote and seat totals are compared with the combined People's Alliance and JVP vote and seat counts at the 2001 election.

By province

By electoral district

District UNP UPFA Other ValidVotes Colombo 441,841 (41.8%)9 seats 414,688 (39.2%)8 seats JHU: 190,618 (18.0%)3 seats 1,057,966 Gampaha 367,572 (37.1%)6 seats 509,963 (51.5%)9 seats JHU: 102,516 (19.4%)2 seats 990,002 Kaluthara 212,721 (37.8%)3 seats 291,208 (51.7%)6 seats JHU: 56,615 (10.1)1 seat 563,019 Kandy 313,859 (50.0%)6 seats 268,131 (42.7%)5 seats JHU: 42,192 (6.7%)1 seat 627,866 Matale 100,642 (45.7%)2 seats 108,259 (49.2%)3 seats JHU: 8,819 (4.0%) 220,062 Nuwara-Eliya 176,971 (54.0%)4 seats 82,945 (25.3%)2 seats JHU: 4,454 (1.4%)Other: 63,239 (19.3%)1 seat 327,609 Galle 209,399 (38.7%)4 seats 306,385 (56.6%)6 seats JHU: 22,826 (4.2%) 541,511 Matara 139,633 (34.9%)3 seats 241,235 (60.3%)5 seats JHU: 16,229 (4.0%) 400,233 Hambantota 98,877 (35.4%)2 seats 178,895 (64.0)5 seats JHU: 1,538 (0.5%) 279,310 Jaffna - - ITAK: 257,320 (90.6%)8 seatsEPDP: 18,612 (6.5%)1 seatSLMC: 1,995 (0.7%) 284,026 Vanni 16,213 (13.4%)1 seat 6,415 (05.3%) ITAK: 90,252 (74.7%)5 seatsDPLF: 6,028 (4.99%)EPDP: 1,084 (0.9%) 120,848 Batticaloa 6,151 (2.5%) 26,268 (10.9%) ITAK: 161,011 (66.7%)4 seatsSLMC: 43,131 (17.9%)1 seat 241,375 Digamadulla 42,121 (14.5%)1 seat 111,747 (38.5%)3 seats SLMC: 76,563 (26.4%)2 seatsITAK: 55,533 (19.1%)1 seatEPDP: 1,611 (0.5%)JHU: 1,130 (0.4%) 290,361 Trincomalee 15,693 (8.6%) 31,053 (17.0%)1 seat ITAK: 68,955 (37.7%)2 seatsSLMC: 65,187 (35.7%)1 seatJHU: 791 (0.4%)EPDP: 540 (0.3%) 182,794 Kurunegala 340,768 (42.9%)7 seats 412,157 (51.9%)9 seats JHU: 37,459 (4.7%) 793,647 Puttalam 135,152 (46.6%)3 seats 142,784 (49.3%)5 seats JHU: 10,000 (3.4%) 289,763 Anuradhapura 148,612 (39.9%)3 seats 212,943 (57.2%)5 seats JHU: 8,034 (2.2%) 372,125 Polonnaruwa 75,664 (40.8%)2 seats 106,243 (57.3%)3 seats JHU: 2,413 (1.3%) 185,261 Badulla 181,705 (49.1%)5 seats 178,634 (48.3%)3 seats JHU: 6,932 (1.9%) 370,178 Monaragala 71,067 (37.0)2 seats 117,456 (61.1%)3 seats JHU: 2,675 (1.4%) 192,113 Ratnapura 205,490 (41.8%)4 seats 261,450 (53.1%)6 seats JHU: 20,801 (4.2%) 492,003 Kegalle 186,641 (44.3%)4 seats 214,267 (50.9%)5 seats JHU: 18,034 (4.3%) 421,131

Elected members

Notes

References