5th Sri Lankan provincial council election

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417 seats across 8 provincial councils
Turnout	65.84%
First party Second party   Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa Ranil Wickremasinghe Party UPFA UNP Popular vote 5,137,170 2,609,386 Percentage 63.10% 32.05% Councillors 269 131 Councils 8 0
Winners of polling divisions. UPFA inblue and UNP ingreen.

Sri Lanka has held several rounds of Provincial Council elections in 2008 and 2009 to elect members to eight of the country’sProvincial Councils. The decision to hold elections in different parts of the country on separate days was a break in the usual practice, which is to hold elections for the whole country on the same day. For each provincial council, members are elected to serve a five-year term. Achief minister for the province is chosen by the elected members.

The firstelection was held in May 2008 to elect members to Sri Lanka'sEastern Provincial Council. In August 2008, elections were held in theNorth Central andSabaragamuwa Provinces. In 2009, elections were held forCentral andNorth Western Provincial Councils in February, for theWestern Provincial Council in April, for theUva Provincial Council in August and for theSouthern Provincial Council in October. No election was held for the ninth provincial council,Northern, which had been governed directly by the national government since it was demerged from theNorth Eastern Provincial Council in January 2007.

The elections were largely seen as a referendum on the handling of thecivil war by Sri Lanka's PresidentMahinda Rajapakse.^[1] Rajapakse'sUnited People's Freedom Alliance and its allies registered resounding victories over the oppositionUnited National Party in all the elections.^[2][3]

In an attempt to end theSri Lankan Civil War theIndo-Lanka Accord was signed on 29 July 1987. One of the requirements of the accord was that theSri Lankan government todevolve powers to the provinces.^[4] Accordingly on 14 November 1987 theSri Lankan Parliament passed the 13thAmendment to the1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act No 42 of 1987.^[5][6] On 3 February 1988 nine provincial councils were created by order.^[7] The first elections for provincial councils took place on 28 April 1988 inNorth Central,North Western,Sabaragamuwa, andUva provinces.^[8] On 2 June 1988 elections were held for provincial councils forCentral,Southern andWestern provinces. TheUnited National Party (UNP), which was in power nationally, won control of all seven provincial councils.

The Indo-Lanka Accord also required the merger of the Eastern and Northern provinces into oneadministrative unit. The accord required areferendum to be held by 31 December 1988 in the Eastern Province to decide whether the merger should be permanent. Crucially, the accord allowed theSri Lankan president to postpone the referendum at hisdiscretion.^[4] On September 2 and 8 1988President Jayewardene issuedproclamations enabling the Eastern and Northern provinces to be one administrative unit administered by one elected council, creating theNorth Eastern Province.^[7] Elections in the newly merged North Eastern Province were held on 19 November 1988. TheEelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, an Indian backedparamilitary group, won control of the North Eastern provincial council.

On 1 March 1990, just as theIndian Peace Keeping Force were preparing to withdraw from Sri Lanka, Annamalai Varatharajah Perumal,Chief Minister of the North Eastern Province, moved a motion in the North Eastern Provincial Councildeclaring anindependentEelam.^[9]President Premadasa reacted to Permual's UDI by dissolving the provincial council and imposing direct rule on the province.^{[citation needed]}

The 2nd Sri Lankan provincial council election was held in 1993 in seven provinces. The UNP retained control of six provincial councils but lost control of the largest provincial council, Western, to the oppositionPeople's Alliance. A special election was held in Southern Province in 1994 after some UNP provincial councillors defected to the opposition. The PA won the election and took control of the Southern Provincial Council.^{[citation needed]}

The3rd Sri Lankan provincial council election was held in 1999 in seven provinces. The PA, which was now in power nationally, managed to win the majority of seats in two provinces (North Central and North Western). It was also able to form a majority administration in the other five provinces with the support of smaller parties such as theCeylon Workers' Congress (CWC) . The UNP regained control of the Central Provincial Council in 2002 after the CWC councillors crossed over to the opposition.^[10]

The4th Sri Lankan provincial council election was held in 2004 in seven provinces. TheUnited People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the successor to the PA, won all seven provinces.^{[citation needed]}

The UPFA won all eight provinces.

Results of the 6th Southern provincial council election held on 10 October 2009:

The Uva Provincial Council was prematurely dissolved on 29 May 2009 by governor Nanda Mathew.^[12] The term of the council was due to expire in August.^[13] The Election Commissioner subsequently announced that nominations will be received from June 17 to June 23, to elect 21 members from theBadulla District and 11 members from theMonaragala District.^[14] After the close of nominations, the date of the elections was announced as 8 August 2009.^[15]

Results of the 5th Uva provincial council election held on 8 August 2009:

• "PAST PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTION RESULTS". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived fromthe original on 3 December 2008.

• 2008–09 Sri Lankan provincial council elections
• Sri Lankan provincial council elections
• 2008 elections in Sri Lanka
• 2008 in Sri Lanka
• 2009 elections in Sri Lanka
• 2009 in Sri Lanka
• Indian Peace Keeping Force

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