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Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 5 December 2001, just a little over a year after the previous elections in October 2000.

Background

The People's Alliance (PA) government faced a blow when most of the SLMC MPs left the coalition. President Chandrika Kumaratunga tried to recruit the JVP to replace it, but this angered several PA MPs, thirteen of which defected to the opposition. A no-confidence motion was prepared; to forestall this, Kumaratunga called the election.

More than 1,300 incidents of election violence were reported during the campaign. [1]. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was nearly killed by a suicide bomber. Overall, 60 people were killed in election-related violence, including 14 on polling day. [2]

Parties

Results

The ruling People's Alliance lost the election, which saw the United National Front win the legislative power. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe became the new prime minister.

Having the President and Prime Minister belong to two different parties proved to be unstable, and Parliament was dissolved again in 2004, leading to yet another general election.

PartyVotes%Seats
DistrictNationalTotal
United National Front[a]4,086,02645.629613109
People's Alliance[b]3,330,81537.19661177
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna815,3539.1013316
Tamil National Alliance[c]348,1643.8914115
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress105,3461.18415
Eelam People's Democratic Party72,7830.81202
Sinhala Heritage50,6650.57000
New Left Front45,9010.51000
Democratic People's Liberation Front16,6690.19101
United Socialist Party9,4550.11000
National Democratic Party6,9520.08000
Democratic Left Front6,2140.07000
United Lalith Front3,8510.04000
Eksath Sinhala Maha Sabha2,7710.03000
Muslim United Liberation Front2,6440.03000
Motherland People's Party1,6300.02000
Jathika Sangwardhena Peramuna1,6240.02000
Bahujana Nidahas Peramuna1,3610.02000
Liberal Party1,1520.01000
Ruhunu Janatha Party1,0890.01000
Democratic United National Front9780.01000
Sri Lanka Progressive Front8540.01000
Sri Lanka Muslim Katchi8020.01000
Sri Lanka National Front7190.01000
Socialist Equality Party2430.00000
Eksath Lanka Podujana Pakshaya560.00000
Independents41,7520.47000
Total8,955,869100.0019629225
Valid votes8,955,86994.77
Invalid/blank votes493,9445.23
Total votes9,449,813100.00
Registered voters/turnout12,428,76276.03
Source: Election Commission

By province

By electoral district

Elected members

Notes

References

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