Country Profile:

Upcoming Elections

  • Parliamentary
    April 2010
Sri Lanka
  • 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: President Mahinda Percy RAJAPAKSA
  • 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.

Population:

  • Population: 21,324,791 (July 2009 )

Future elections

  • Parliamentary - April 2010

Past elections

Last Updated on 02/04/2010