Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2001

Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on December 6, 2001, just a little over a year after the last 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. [http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=886251] . 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. [http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=898423]

Parties

* Democratic People's Liberation Front (DFLP)
* Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP)
* People's Alliance (Bahejana Nidasa Pakhsaya, BNP), which consisted of:
** Communist Party of Sri Lanka
** Democratic United National Front
** Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Sri Lanka Equal Society Party, LSSP)
** Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Sri Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya, SLNP)
** Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya (Sri Lanka People's Party, SLMP)
* Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front, JVP)
* Sri Lanka Muslim Congress
* Tamil United Liberation Front (Tamil Vimuktasi Peramuna, TVP)
* United National Front, which consisted of:
** United National Party (Ekshat Jathika Pakshaya, UNP)
** Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC)

Results

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

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

ee also

*Politics of Sri Lanka