Politics of Sri Lanka

The president, directly elected for a five-year term, is head of state, head of government, and commander in chief of the armed forces. The election occurs under the Sri Lankan form of the contingent vote. Responsible to Parliament for the exercise of duties under the constitution and laws, the president may be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of Parliament with the concurrence of the Supreme Court.

The president appoints and heads a cabinet of ministers responsible to Parliament. The president's deputy is the prime minister, who leads the ruling party in Parliament. A parliamentary no-confidence vote requires dissolution of the cabinet and the appointment of a new one by the President.

The Parliament has 225 members, elected for a five-year term, 196 members elected in multi-seat constituencies and 29 by proportional representation.

The primary modification is that the party that receives the largest number of valid votes in each constituency gains a unique "bonus seat" (see Hickman, 1999). The president may summon, suspend, or end a legislative session and can dissolve Parliament at any time after one year from the General Elections (except in a few limited circumstances). The President can also dissolve Parliament before the completion of one year, if requested to do so by resolution signed by at least half the MPs. Parliament reserves the power to make all laws. Since its independence in 1948, Sri Lanka has remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

In August 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that presidential elections would be held in November 2005, resolving a long-running dispute on the length of President Kumaratunga's term. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was nominated the SLFP candidate and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the UNP candidate. The election was held on 17 November 2005, and Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected the 5th Executive President of Sri Lanka winning 50.3% of valid votes, compared to Ranil Wickremesinghe's 48.4%. Mahinda Rajapaksa took oath as president on 19 November 2005. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was appointed the 22nd Prime Minister on 21 November 2005, to fill the post vacated by Mahinda Rajapaksa. He was previously Prime Minister from 2000 until 2001.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the 2015 presidential elections, ending his ten-year presidency. However, his successor, President Maithripala Sirisena, decided not to seek re-election in 2019.[3] This enabled the Rajapaksa family to regain power in the 2019 presidential elections. Mahinda Rajapaksa's younger brother and former wartime defence chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the election, and was sworn in as the 7th Executive President of Sri Lanka.[4][5] The Rajapaksa's firm grip of power consolidated in the parliamentary elections held in August 2020. The family's political party Sri Lanka People's Front (known by its Sinhala initials SLPP) won a landslide victory and a clear majority in the parliament, and five members of the Rajapaksa family won a seat in the parliament. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa became the new prime minister.[6]

Local government is divided into two parallel structures, the civil service, which dates to colonial times, and the provincial councils, which were established in 1987.

Sri Lanka's judiciary consists of a Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, and a number of subordinate courts. Sri Lanka's legal system reflects diverse cultural influences. Criminal law is fundamentally British. Basic civil law is Roman-Dutch, but laws pertaining to marriage, divorce, and inheritance are communal, known as respectively as Kandyan, Thesavalamai (Jaffna Tamil) and Muslim (Roman-Dutch law applies to Low-country Sinhalese, Estate Tamils and others).

Courts of law

• Supreme Court of Sri Lanka
• Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka
• High Court of Sri Lanka
• District Courts
• Magistrate's Courts
• Primary Courts

Sri Lanka generally follows a non-aligned foreign policy but has been seeking closer relations with the United States since December 1977. It participates in multilateral diplomacy, particularly at the United Nations, where it seeks to promote sovereignty, independence, and development in the developing world. Sri Lanka was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). It also is a member of the Commonwealth, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank, and the Colombo Plan. Sri Lanka continues its active participation in the NAM, while also stressing the importance it places on regionalism by playing a strong role in SAARC.

Sri Lanka is member of the IAEA, IBRD, ADB, C, CP, ESCAP, FAO, G-24, G-77, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NAM, OAS (observer), OPCW, PCA, SAARC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNU, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO. І

The growing interest of other countries in making their claims to Sri Lanka's strategic assets has been generating heated discussion among national and international circles. Worth noting, China, India and Japan's involvement in Sri Lankan seaport developments is a direct consequence of the ongoing tussle among these three nations to get a firm foothold in this very strategically located island state of Sri Lanka.[10]

Civil society participation in decision-making and opinion-shaping is very poor in Sri Lanka. Professionals, civil society groups, media etc. do not play a significant role in Sri Lankan politics and, as a result, many aspects of the lives of ordinary citizens are politicized. In addition, the vacuum created by the silence and inactivity of civil society has let in radical groups such as the ethnic/religion-based groups, Sri Lanka trade unions; and NGOs have taken lead roles as political pressure groups.

• List of rulers of Ceylon
• List of presidents of Sri Lanka
• List of prime ministers of Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka leftist parties

• Robert C. Oberst. "Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka", Publius, Vol. 18, No. 3, The State of American Federalism, 1987 (Summer, 1988), pp. 175–193

• Sri Lanka Government at Curlie
• Office of the Governor – Uva / ඌව පලාත් ආණ්ඩුකාරවර කාර්යාලය

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