Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 5 August 2020 to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka's 16th Parliament. 16,263,885 people were eligible to vote in the election, 31.95% of whom were young voters.

The incumbent Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance coalition claimed a landslide victory in the election, winning 145 seats, while Samagi Jana Balawegaya won 54 seats, Tamil National Alliance won 10 seats and National People's Power won 3 seats. The main opposition United National Party suffered its worst showing in history following a split over party leadership, finishing in fifth place with only one seat.

The election was postponed at least twice due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, before the date was finalized as 5 August 2020. Prior to the election, a coronavirus-proof mock election was conducted by the Election Commission in June 2020 as a trial run in order to comply with health guidelines.

Initial reports revealed that the overall voter turnout was estimated at 70%, comparatively less than the turnout of the previous elections, mainly due to COVID-19. Vote counting started on 6 August 2020 at around 9am. The new parliament is expected to reconvene on 20 August 2020.

In November 2018, the date was briefly moved forward by more than a year to 5 January 2019 after President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved parliament during a constitutional crisis and called for a snap election. The Supreme Court later suspended the dissolution and ordered a halt to the snap election, effectively moving the election's date back to 2020.

Electoral system The Parliament has 225 members, elected for a five-year term. 196 members are elected in 22 multi-seat constituencies through a proportional representation system where each party is allocated a number of seats from the quota for each district according to the proportion of the total vote that party obtains in the district. The other 29 are elected from the national list, with list members appointed by each party secretary according to the island wide proportional vote the party obtains.

Contesting parties The main parties and alliances contesting in the election included the alliance of Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapakse, the ruling Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance (SLPFA), the main opposition United National Party (UNP) of Ranil Wickremasinghe, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) of Sajith Premadasa, former opposition TNA of R. Sampanthan and National People's Power (NPP) of Anura Kumara Dissanayake. President Gotabaya was previously elected president in November 2019.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya, a breakaway faction from the United National Party, was formed by Sajith Premadasa in February 2020 following a rift and creative differences between Sajith and Ranil Wickremasinghe regarding the leadership of the UNP. The party itself claimed a position as a main opposition party prior to the election despite being newly formed.

Development On 19 March 2020, Chairman of the Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya revealed that the election would be postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sri Lankan government initially insisted that scheduled forthcoming the election would proceed as planned on 25 April despite the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka, and the authorities banned election rallies and meetings. During the video conference with SAARC leaders, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa initially confirmed that the parliamentary elections would be held as scheduled. Even with the president's comments holding the elections as scheduled, the Election Commission in Sri Lanka put off the date to 20 June 2020, using its powers. This created a crisis between the president's office and the Constitution, and the matter went to the courts.

On 10 June 2020, Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya confirmed that the postponed parliamentary elections would be held on 5 August 2020 with strict health measures and guidelines.

According to various sources, vote turnout initially had a slow start, mainly due to the virus fears, but started to pick up gradually in late morning. This was the first Sri Lankan general election held amid a disease outbreak; the Election Commission recommended that voters bring their own blue or black ballpoint pen in order to make the proceedings easier along with precautionary distancing guidelines. The authorities also required that voters wear face masks and use hand sanitizer upon entering and exiting polling stations.

On election day, Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya cast his vote by visiting the polling station rather than opting for a postal vote. This also marked his first voting appearance in a polling station in nine years. Approximately 82,000 security personnel and more than 60,000 health officials were deployed during the election. The Colombo Stock Exchange was closed early at around 12:30pm.

Exit poll opinions Initial exit poll reports and opinions stated that the ruling SLPFA were favourites to emerge victorious in the elections, mainly owing to the predominant success in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic and due to the negative publicity about the UNP-led government, which was accused of a major intelligence failure which was triggered by the aftermath of the 2019 Easter attacks.

Election campaigns The candidates were reported to have spent 2.2 billion rupees during the election campaign, with SJB being reported to have spent a higher amount compared to other parties. Campaigns were mostly arranged by the candidates on social media platforms such as Facebook, due to the ban on public gatherings owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, UNP became the first party to launch the digital election campaign.

Sri Lanka's treasury department issued 8.5 billion rupees to the election department for election expenditures. In July 2020, President Gotabaya of SLPFA was awarded the Zero carbon certificate for conducting his election campaign representing SLPFA in eco-friendly manner. His election campaign also became the first zero carbon election campaign in the world.

SLPP's political campaign was primarily based on economic revival as well making changes to the constitution, including amending the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, controversially passed following the 2015 parliamentary election. Rajapaksa brothers were critical of the 19th amendment as it reduced the major powers of the executive President.

All election campaigns were restricted on 2 August 2020 by the Election Commissioner.

Timeline 2018 9 November 2018 – President Maithripala Sirisena dissolves parliament and calls general elections to be held on 5 January 2019. 13 December 2018 – The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ruled unanimously that President Maithripala Sirisena's order to dissolve Parliament and hold new elections was unconstitutional. 16 December 2018 – Ranil Wickramasinghe was sworn back in as Prime Minister after the Supreme Court ruled that Mahinda Rajapaksa can not act as Prime Minister. 2019 21 November 2019 – Incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe resigns and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appoints his brother Mahinda Rajapakse as the new Prime Minister. 2020 30 January 2020 – United National Party working committee approves Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa as its Prime Minister candidate. 10 February 2020 – Leader of the opposition Sajith Premadasa forms a new alliance called Samagi Jana Balawegaya following the rift between him and United National Party leader Ranil Wickremasinghe due to political creative differences. 17 February 2020 – Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance registered under the leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena named as chairperson. 3 March 2020 – The President dissolved Parliament, with elections set on 25 April 2020 and the nomination period ending 18 March. 19 March 2020 – Election Commission postpones the elections without announcing a new date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 3 April 2020 – Elections Commission write to the president asking him to see advise for a new date or make an alternative since they are unable to hold the elections as per the Gazette. 9 April 2020 – President's Secretary PB Jayasundara response to the commission that president will not get any advice from the courts on the elections, and it is the commissions' responsibility to hold the elections, warning of Constitutional Crisis. 20 April 2020 – Election Commission of Sri Lanka declared 20 June 2020 as the date of elections, after a member of commission Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole object to hold the election on 28 May 2020 with the government influence. 5 May 2020 – Newspaper editor Victor Ivan and seven others filed a Fundamental Rights petition in Supreme Court seeking an order quashing the Extraordinary Gazette notification declaring the General Election on 20 June. 6 May 2020 – Samagi Jana Balawegaya files a Fundamental Rights petition challenging the Gazette notification issued by the Elections Commission declaring the General Election to be held on 20 June. 9 May 2020 – Champika Ranawaka of Jathika Hela Urumaya and Kumara Welgama of the New Lanka Freedom Party file a Fundamental Rights petition challenging the Gazette notification issued by the Elections Commission declaring the General Election to be held on 20 June. 18 May 2020 – Supreme Court's five-member judge bench started hearing 8 petitions against the 20 June general election date. 20 May 2020 – Elections Commission inform the Supreme court that 20 June fix date is no longer a possible date for the election. 22 May 2020 – Attorney General requests the supreme court to dismiss petitions submitted in relation to the general election without hearings. 2 June 2020 – The Supreme Court dismissed all Fundamental Rights petitions filed and denied granting leave to proceed with all petitions. 10 June 2020 – Election Commission announces 5 August 2020 as the new date of elections. 30 July 2020 – All election campaigning and propaganda activities for the Parliamentary Election 2020 must end at midnight on 2 August, the Elections Commission announced. 10 August 2020 – Gotabaya Rajapaksa announces that the Subject Ministers and State Ministers are scheduled to be sworn in at the Magul Maduwa on 12 August 2020.

Background During the constitutional crisis in 2018, Sirisena dissolved parliament and ordered a snap election after his nominee for Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, failed to gain a majority in Parliament to back his nomination.

However, after the constitutionality of the dissolution was challenged before Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, the dissolution was suspended, and the snap election was put on hold while the court case was ongoing. On 13 December 2018, the Supreme Court ruled the dissolution of the parliament unconstitutional, moving the election back to its original date.

On 19 March 2020, the Election Commission postponed the elections without announcing a new date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 20 May 2020, the Election Commission informed that the Supreme Court clarified a fix date 20 June 2020 for the election. On 10 June 2020, Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya confirmed that the postponed parliamentary elections were to be held on 5 August 2020. On 17 July 2020, the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine issued a gazette regarding the health guidelines for the election after a long delay.

COVID-19