Sri Lankan presidential election, 2005

5th Sri Lankan presidential election

17 November 2005
Turnout	73.73%
Nominee Mahinda Rajapaksa Ranil Wickremesinghe Party United People's Freedom Alliance United National Party Popular vote 4,887,152 4,706,366 Percentage 50.29% 48.43%
polling divisions won by ■ – Mahinda Rajapaksa ■ – Ranil Wickremesinghe ■ – Mahinda Rajapaksa (turnout below 2%) ■ – Ranil Wickremesinghe (turnout below 2%)
President before election Chandrika Kumaratunga United People's Freedom Alliance Elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa United People's Freedom Alliance

The Sri Lankan presidential election of 2005 was the fifth presidential election of Sri Lanka. Nominations were accepted on 7 September 2005, and the election was held on 17 November 2005. Electoral participation 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 do to 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 Wickramasinghe 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, Wickremasinghe's only real 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. Wickremasinghe's hopes for 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 Wickremasinghe's free-market policies when he was prime minister from 2001–04, but he had also pursued controversial privatizations which Rajapaksa promised to halt. Rajapaksa also promised a policy of economic nationalism.

Results

Maps

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

Notes

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.
• "2005 - Presidential Election". Manthree.com.
• "DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS OF 17 NOVEMBER 2005". Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive.