2024 Sri Lankan presidential election
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Candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe Sajith Premadasa Anura Kumara Dissanayaka
Party UNP SJB JVP
Alliance TBA SJB NPP
President before election

Ranil Wickremesinghe
UNP

Elected President

TBA
TBA

Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka sometime between September and October 2024, according to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. Voters will elect a president for a term of five years. Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe is eligible to run for re-election.[1]

Electoral system

The President of Sri Lanka is elected via limited ranked voting. Voters can express up to three ranked preferences for President. If no candidate receives over 50% of valid votes on the first count, all candidates except for the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes are eliminated. The second and third preferences of the eliminated candidates are distributed until one of the remaining two candidates receives an outright majority.[2] In practice, this system has seen little use, as each direct election going back to the first in 1981 has resulted in a candidate from one of the two major parties or alliances at the time winning in the first count. For this reason, many citizens opt to mark only one candidate, and many are wholly unaware that multiple candidates can be ranked at all.[3]

Background

The last direct presidential elections held in Sri Lanka were in 2019, where SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the election in a landslide victory, defeating his main opponent Sajith Premadasa.[4][5] Rajapaksa would eventually resign on 14 July 2022 amidst the 2022 Sri Lankan protests.[6] This triggered an indirect presidential election via Parliament a week later, to elect a successor according to the Article 40 of the Constitution.[7] Then-incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was appointed by Rajapaksa just two months earlier, received the most votes and was sworn in as the 9th President of Sri Lanka on 21 July 2022.[8][9]

Article 40 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka states that "Any person so succeeding to the office of President shall hold office only for the unexpired period of the term of office of the President vacating office."[10] Accordingly, the next presidential election must be held no later than November 2024.

Sri Lankan recent election results
Dates of elections Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna
(SLPFA) 		Samagi Jana Balawegaya National People's Power Tamil National Alliance United National Party Others
Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes %
2019 presidential election 6,924,255 52.25% － － 418,553 3.16% － － 5,564,239 41.99%[i] 345,452 2.35%
2020 parliamentary election 6,853,690 59.09% 2,771,980 23.90% 445,958 3.84% 327,168 2.82% 249,435 2.15% 950,698 8.20%
Sri Lankan recent election results
2019 presidential election 2020 parliamentary election
Winners of polling divisions ■ SLPFA ■ SJB ■ TNA ■ SLFP ■ EPDP ■ Other parties
Elected members of each electoral district or municipality, gaining the highest number of votes

Candidates

Declared

Candidate Political office and constituency Date declared Notes Ref.
Maithripala Sirisena
Maithripala Sirisena (72)
Sri Lanka Freedom Party 		Former President of Sri Lanka (2015–2019)
Leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (since 2015)
Polonnaruwa 		31 January 2023 In 2024, Sirisena stated his intention to withdraw from the presidential race and for the SLFP-led alliance to select a new candidate. [11]

Ranil Wickremesinghe (74)
United National Party 		Current President of Sri Lanka (since 2022)
Leader of the United National Party (since 1994)
Former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (1993–1994, 2001–2004, 2015–2019, 2022) 		8 April 2023 [1]

Sajith Premadasa (57)
Samagi Jana Balawegaya 		Current Leader of the Opposition (since 2019)
Leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (since 2020)
Colombo 		16 May 2023 [12]

Janaka Ratnayake (59)
Independent 		Former Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (2021–2023)
Chairman and CEO of Trillium Property Management & Services Limited (since 2014) 		24 May 2023 [13]

Anura Kumara Dissanayaka (55)
National People's Power 		Former Chief Opposition Whip (2015–2018)
Leader of the National People's Power (since 2015)
Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (since 2014)
Colombo 		29 August 2023 [14]

Withdrew

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna

Opinion polls

Nationwide

Date Polling firm Dissanayake
NPP 		Premadasa
SJB 		Wickremesinghe
UNP 		SLPP Lead Margin
of error 		Sample
size 		Undecided/
Non-voters[ii]
December 2023 Institute for Health Policy 50% 33% 9% 8% 17% ±1–4% 14,941
October 2023 Institute for Health Policy 51% 30% 13% 6% 21% ±1–4% 567
September 2023 Institute for Health Policy 46% 29% 17% 8% 17% ±1–3% 599
August 2023 Institute for Health Policy 38% 35% 18% 9% 3% ±1–3% 556
July 2023 Institute for Health Policy 39% 33% 19% 9% 6% ±1–3% 466
June 2023 Institute for Health Policy 40% 35% 15% 9% 5% ±1–3% 506
May 2023 Institute for Health Policy 38% 34% 18% 10% 4% ±1–4% 630
April 2023 Institute for Health Policy 45% 37% 13% 6% 8% ±1–4% 580
March 2023 Institute for Health Policy 48% 37% 11% 4% 11% ±1–5% 521

Notes

  1. ^ New Democratic Front candidate led by the United National Party
  2. ^ This column lists the percentage of undecided voters and non-voters in certain polls that publish this data. As some polls do not publish any data whatsoever on undecided voters and non-voters, the columns with survey participants that had a preference when polled are all that is needed to reach 100%. In surveys that do include data on non-voters and undecided voters, a scaling factor is applied to the margin of error and the rest of the data (for example, if the number of undecideds and non-voters equals 20%, each party would have their vote share scaled up by a factor of 100/80 (the formula is 100/(100 - Undecided Percentage)). This is done to keep consistency between the different polls and the different types of data they provide.

References

  1. ^ a b "Ranil to contest Presidential election, hints at poll early next year - Top Story | Daily Mirror". www.dailymirror.lk. Retrieved 2023-04-08.
  2. ^ Presidential Elections Act, No 15 of 1981
  3. ^ Gajanayake, Manjula; Siriwardana, Thusitha; Isuranga, Hirantha; Jayasinghe, Pasan (2019). "2019 Sri Lankan Presidential Election: Election Observation Report" (PDF). Centre for Monitoring Election Violence. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  4. ^ "November Lanka polls to test India's presence in southern Indian Ocean region". Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury. The Economic Times. 21 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  5. ^ "Gotabaya Rajapaksa wins the election as Premadasa concedes defeat to the former". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  6. ^ "Sri Lanka: President Gotabaya has officially stepped down". Sri Lanka News – Newsfirst. 15 July 2022. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  7. ^ Ondaatjie, Anusha; Sirimanne, Asantha (12 July 2022). "Sri Lanka Latest: Parliament to Elect New President July 20". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 11 July 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  8. ^ Stepansky, Joseph (20 July 2022). "Sri Lanka live news: Ranil Wickremesinghe elected president". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 20 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  9. ^ "Sri Lanka gets new President: Ranil Wickremesinghe". News First. 20 July 2022. Archived from the original on 20 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  10. ^ "Presidential Elections (Special Provisions) Act". LawNet. Parliament of Sri Lanka. 1981. Archived from the original on 21 July 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  11. ^ "Ex-Sri Lanka president Sirisena to run again; apologises to Catholics, compares self to Mandela". EconomyNext. 2023-01-31. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  12. ^ "Sajith Premadasa named as SJB Presidential Candidate". NewsWire. 2023-05-16. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  13. ^ Siriwardana, Ajith (26 May 2023). "'All common candidates have failed, I will be people’s candidate': Janaka Ratnayake". DailyMirror. Retrieved on 26 May 2023.
  14. ^ "JVP on the track before race is announced". Dailymirror. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  15. ^ "Rajapaksa to seek second term as Sri Lanka crisis deepens". France 24. 19 July 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  16. ^ "Sri Lanka President Vows to Finish Term, Won't Run for Re-Election". Bloomberg.com. 6 June 2022.
  17. ^ "Basil will contest for President in 2024, says SLPPS Ranjith Bandara". 7 July 2021.
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