2005 Sri Lankan presidential election

2005 Sri Lankan presidential election

17 November 2005
Turnout	73.73% ( 0.42 pp)
Nominee Mahinda Rajapaksa Ranil Wickremesinghe Party SLFP UNP Alliance UPFA UNF Popular vote 4,887,152 4,706,366 Percentage 50.29% 48.43%
President before election Chandrika Kumaratunga SLFP Elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa SLFP

The 2005 Sri Lankan presidential election was the 5th presidential election, held on 17 November 2005. Nominations were accepted on 7 September 2005 and voter turnout was 73.73%. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa of the governing United People's Freedom Alliance was elected, receiving 50.3% of all votes cast.

Presidential term controversy

At first, there was doubt whether the election would be held at all. President Chandrika Kumaratunga had called the 1999 election one year ahead of schedule; she argued that the extra year should be appended to her second term, and filed suit to do this. The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka rejected her claims and the election went ahead.

Campaign

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa quickly emerged as the candidate for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Ranil Wickremesinghe for the United National Party. Both candidates tried to round up the support of minor parties. Rajapaksa needed to re-assemble the alliance with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna that existed at the parliamentary level (the United People's Freedom Alliance). After he agreed to reject federalism and renegotiate the ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the JVP and the Jathika Hela Urumaya endorsed him.

After that, Wickremesinghe's only hope of victory was through the support of the island's ethnic minorities, given his generally more conciliatory stance on the ethnic issue. He secured the endorsement of the main Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, and the Ceylon Workers' Congress representing the estate Tamils. He could not, however, obtain the backing of the main Sri Lankan Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance. Any hopes for Wickremesinghe's victory were effectively dashed when the LTTE ordered Tamil voters, most of whom would likely have voted for him, to boycott the polls.

Economic issues also worked to Rajapaksa's favour. Sri Lanka had enjoyed strong growth under Wickremesinghe's free-market policies when he was prime minister from 2001 to 2004, but he had also pursued controversial privatizations which Rajapaksa promised to halt. Rajapaksa also promised a policy of economic nationalism.

Results

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Mahinda Rajapaksa	Sri Lanka Freedom Party	4,887,152	50.29
	Ranil Wickremesinghe	United National Party	4,706,366	48.43
	Siritunga Jayasuriya	United Socialist Party	35,425	0.36
	A. A. Suraweera	National Development Front	31,238	0.32
	Victor Hettigoda	United Lanka People's Party	14,458	0.15
	Chamil Jayaneththi	New Left Front	9,296	0.10
	Aruna de Soyza	Ruhuna People's Party	7,685	0.08
	Wimal Geeganage	Sri Lanka National Front	6,639	0.07
	Anura de Silva	United Lalith Front	6,357	0.07
	Ajith Arachchige	Democratic Unity Alliance	5,082	0.05
	Wije Dias	Socialist Equality Party	3,500	0.04
	Nelson Perera	Sri Lanka Progressive Front	2,525	0.03
	Hewaheenipellage Dharmadwaja	United National Alternative Front	1,316	0.01
Total			9,717,039	100.00
Valid votes			9,717,039	98.88
Invalid/blank votes			109,739	1.12
Total votes			9,826,778	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			13,327,160	73.73
Source: Election Commission

District results

Districts won by Rajapaksa

Districts won by Wickremesinghe

Summary of the 2005 Sri Lankan presidential election by electoral district

District	Province	Rajapaksa		Wickremesinghe		Others		Turnout
		Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
Colombo	Western	534,431	47.96%	569,627	51.12%	10,192	0.92%	76.75%
Gampaha	Western	596,698	54.78%	481,764	44.23%	10,815	0.99%	80.71%
Kalutara	Western	341,693	55.48%	266,043	43.20%	8,124	1.32%	81.43%
Kandy	Central	315,672	44.30%	387,150	54.33%	9,798	1.37%	79.65%
Matale	Central	120,533	48.09%	125,937	50.25%	4,150	1.66%	79.04%
Nuwara Eliya	Central	99,550	27.97%	250,428	70.37%	5,897	1.66%	80.78%
Galle	Southern	347,223	58.41%	239320	40.26%	7,925	1.33%	81.94%
Matara	Southern	279411	61.85%	165827	36.71%	6,484	1.44%	80.96%
Hambantota	Southern	202,918	63.43%	112,712	35.23%	4,295	1.34%	81.41%
Jaffna	Northern	1,967	25.00%	5,523	70.20%	1,034	4.8%	1.21%
Vanni	Northern	17,197	20.36%	65,798	77.89%	2,879	1.75%	34.30%
Batticaloa	Eastern	28,836	18.87%	121,514	79.51%	4,265	1.62%	48.51%
Ampara	Eastern	122,329	42.88%	159,198	55.81%	6,681	1.31%	72.7%
Trincomalee	Eastern	55,680	37.04%	92,197	61.33%	4,551	1.63%	63.84%
Kurunegala	North Western	468,507	52.56%	418,809	46.72%	17,639	0.72%	80.51%
Puttalam	North Western	160,686	48.14%	169,264	50.71%	3,833	1.15%	71.68%
Anuradhapura	North Central	231,040	55.08%	182,956	42.62%	5,438	2.3%	78.98%
Polonnaruwa	North Central	110,499	52.61%	97,142	46.25%	2,389	1.14%	80.43%
Badulla	Uva	192,734	45.18%	226,582	53.11%	7,283	1.71%	81.29%
Monaragala	Uva	126,094	56.94%	92,244	41.65%	3,112	1.41%	81.16%
Ratnapura	Sabaragamuwa	294,260	53.01%	252,838	45.55%	7,976	1.44%	83.89%
Kegalle	Sabaragamuwa	239,184	51.02%	223,483	47.67%	6,106	1.31%	81.19%
Total		4,887,152	50.29%	4,706,366	48.43%	123,521	1.28%	73.73%

Maps

• 
  Winners of polling divisions
• 
  Majorities according to polling divisions
• 
  Majorities according to electoral districts

References

• "Result of Presidential Election 2005 (District)" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-04.
• "Sri Lanka Election Results 2005 - Live Update". LankaNewspapers.com. 12 July 2023.
• "2005 - Presidential Election". Manthree.com.
• "DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS OF 17 NOVEMBER 2005". Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive.