1988 Sri Lankan presidential election

← 1982 19 December 1988 1993 →
Turnout	55.32% 25.74 pp
Nominee Ranasinghe Premadasa Sirimavo Bandaranaike Party UNP SLFP Popular vote 2,569,199 2,289,860 Percentage 50.43% 44.95%
Winners of polling divisions. Premadasa in green, Bandaranaike in blue and Abeygunasekera in red.
President before election J. R. Jayewardene UNP Elected President Ranasinghe Premadasa UNP

Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 19 December 1988. Nominations were accepted on 10 November 1988. Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa of the governing United National Party was elected, receiving 50.4% of all votes cast. Voter turnout was only 55.32%, substantially lower than the previous election and the lowest turnout for a Sri Lankan presidential election.

Background

During the 1988 election, Sri Lanka was in chaos. In the north and east, soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force battled Tamil Tiger rebels. In the south, government death squads engaged in deadly violence with equally brutal militants of the Sinhala-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Effective campaigning for both the government and opposition was barely possible.

Both major party candidates promised to abrogate the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord negotiated by outgoing UNP president J. R. Jayewardene and would ask Indian troops to leave the country.

Voting was not held in the LTTE-controlled areas of the north and east.

Results

Aided by its control of the state-owned media, the UNP candidate, Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa, won a narrow but firm victory.