Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary elections are being held on 14th of November 2024 to elect 225 Members. In this context, the 16th Parliament of Sri Lanka was dissolved on 24 September 2024. Submission of Nominations for the same commenced on 4th October and concluded on 11th October 2024. Following the election procedure, the newly elected 17th Parliament of Sri Lanka is expected to convene on 21 November 2024.
Prior to this as per the political scenario of the country, Sri Lanka People’s Freedom Alliance (SLPFA), led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, had won a large majority in the 2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary election on 5 August 2020.
During this tenure, the government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa faced multiple crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic crisis, widespread protests, and the 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis. These led to Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country and resigning as president, while Mahinda Rajapaksa also stepped down as prime minister.
Then, Ranil Wickremesinghe was first appointed as Prime Minister and later became the acting president following Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation. In a Parliamentary vote on 20 July 2024, Wickremesinghe was elected as Sri Lanka’s 9th president, tasked with completing the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term.
In the 2024 Sri Lankan Presidential election held on 21 September 2024, Anura Kumara Dissanayake defeated his main rivals, opposition leader- Sajith Premadasa and incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, to become the new President of Sri Lanka.
Although the Sri Lankan parliament has a term of five years, the President can dissolve it after two years and six months from its first meeting or upon receiving a resolution from the Parliament. In spite of the scheduled end in August 2025, President Dissanayake, exercising his constitutional powers and fulfilling an election pledge, had dissolved 16th Parliament on 21 September 2024, and called for a Parliamentary Election. Postal voting commenced on 30 October 2024, continued on 1, 4, and 7 November, and concluded on 8 November 2024. And, Election campaigning activities were concluded on 11th November.
Sri Lankan Parliament has 225 members elected for a five-year term. 196 members are elected from 22 multi-seat constituencies. The other 29 seats are elected from a national list, with list members appointed by party secretaries and seats allocated according to the Island-wide proportional vote the party obtains.
The first meeting of the new parliament must occur within three months of the previous parliament’s dissolution.
On 25 September, the Election Commission had released details regarding the number of members to be elected from each electoral district in the upcoming parliamentary election, the number of candidates to be listed on the nomination paper, and the deposit amount required from independent groups. Recognized political parties are exempted from making a deposit.
In fact, presently Sri Lanka is voting in a parliamentary election that’s key for its new Marxist-leaning President to consolidate his party’s power and follow through on promises of economic recovery.
The election comes at a decisive time for Sri Lankans, as the Island nation is struggling to emerge from its worst economic crisis, having declared bankruptcy after defaulting on its external debt in 2022. The biggest challenge for Dissanayake’s NPP is that many of its candidates are new faces in politics running against well-established politicians from the country’s traditional parties.
Undoubtedly, present President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidential election on September 21 in a victory that marked a rejection of the traditional political parties. These defeated ones had governed the Island nation since its independence from British rule in 1948.
However, Dissanayake’s failure to secure more than 50 per cent of the votes has fueled concerns over his party’s outlook in the current election.
His National People’s Power party must increase its votes significantly — from the 42 per cent it won in the presidential election — if it is to acquire a minimum of 113 seats to take control of the 225-member Parliament.
Of the 225 parliament seats, 196 are up for grabs under Sri Lanka’s proportional representative electoral system, which allocates seats in each district among the parties according to the proportion of the votes they get.
The remaining 29 seats — called the national list seats — are allocated to parties and independent groups according to the proportion of the total votes they receive countrywide.
There are a total 8,821 candidates from political parties and independent groups vying for the 196 seats for elected members of Parliament. Sajith Premadasa, who came in second in the Presidential election and his Samagi Jana Balawegaya or United People’s Power party, is NPP’s main competitor.
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