2019 Sri Lankan presidential election

2019 Sri Lankan presidential election
← 2015 16 November 2019 2022 →
Turnout83.72% (Increase2.20pp)
 
Candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa Sajith Premadasa
Party SLPP UNP
Alliance SLPFA NDF
Popular vote 6,924,255 5,564,239
Percentage 52.25% 41.99%
Results by polling division
President before election

Maithripala Sirisena
SLFP

Elected President

Gotabaya Rajapaksa
SLPP

The 2019 Sri Lankan presidential election was the 8th presidential election, held on 16 November 2019.[1][2] Incumbent president Maithripala Sirisena did not run for a second term. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was the candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna[3] and was endorsed by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.[4] Sajith Premadasa, son of former president Ranasinghe Premadasa and deputy leader of the United National Party was the candidate of the ruling party.[5][6]

The results were announced on 17 November 2019. Rajapaksa won the election in a landslide victory, winning 52.25% of all votes cast compared his main opponent Premadasa's 41.99%. The results of the election subsequently brought the Rajapaksa family back to power after a 5-year interregnum.[7][8]

Sirisena's term of office would have ended on 9 January 2020. This was the first presidential election in Sri Lanka where no sitting president, prime minister or opposition leader ran for president.

  1. ^ "Presidential poll between Nov. 9 and Dec. 9: EC". www.dailymirror.lk. Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on 13 August 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  2. ^ "Possibility of a snap presidential election anytime after 9 January 2019 ::. Latest Sri Lanka News". ONLANKA News :. Latest Sri Lanka Breaking News Updates | Sri Lanka News. 28 May 2018. Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sunday Times 240319 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference SLFP to support Rajapaksa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "November Lanka polls to test India's presence in southern Indian Ocean region". Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury. The Economic Times. 21 October 2019. Archived from the original on 18 April 2024. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  8. ^ "Gotabaya Rajapaksa wins the election as Premadasa concedes defeat to the former". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 17 November 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019.