IFES Election Guide - Country Profile: Sri Lanka

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Parliamentary
April 2016
Presidential
2016

Sri Lanka
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Region: Asia & Pacific

Description of government structure:

Chief of State: President Mahinda Percy RAJAPAKSA *
Head of Government: Prime Minister Disanayaka Mudianselage JAYARATNE
Assembly: Sri Lanka has a unicameral Parliament with 225 seats.

* Under the contingent vote system, voters may rank up to three candidates. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round of counting, ballots whose first rankings are eliminated candidates are redistributed to the next-ranked candidates on those ballots. The winner is the candidate with the most votes after this second round of counting.

Description of electoral system:

The President is elected through a contingent vote system to serve a 6-year term.
In the Parliament 225 members are elected by open list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies to serve 6-year terms.***

*** Parties must clear a threshold of one-eighth of votes to win seats in the respective constituency. Each voter may cast three preference votes. There are 22 multi-member constituencies containing 196 seats and one nationwide constituency with 29 seats.