Electoral districts of Sri Lanka
Electoral districts and polling divisions of Sri Lanka
Category	Electoral districts
Location	Sri Lanka
Created by	1978 Constitution
Created	7 September 1978 (1978-09-07)
Number	22 (as of 2024)
Government	Parliament of Sri Lanka

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The1978 Constitution ofSri Lanka provides for theelection ofmembers ofParliament from 22multi-memberelectoral districts through theproportional representation electoral system.

All but two of the electoral districts are conterminous with their namesakeadministrative district. The two exceptions areJaffna (which covers the administrative districts ofJaffna andKilinochchi) andVanni (which covers the administrative districts ofMannar,Mullaitivu andVavuniya). The first general election which used these electoral districts was in1989.

According to the constitution the Parliament should consist of 225 seats (members):^[1]

• 36 seats were allocated to the nineprovinces, four each (section 96(4)).^[2] A delimitation commission would apportion the four seats between the electoral districts in each province.^[2]
• 160 seats were allocated to the electoral districts (section 98).^[3] An election commission would apportion the seats annually based on the number of registered electors.
• 29 seats were reserved for thenational list (section 99A).^[4]

The constitution required the establishment of a delimitation commission for the delimitation of the electoral districts and apportion the 36 provincial seats.^[2][5] The constitution limited the number of electoral districts to between 20 and 25.^[2]

The Delimitation Commission was appointed on 29 November 1978. Its decision was published on 15 January 1981. The country was divided into 22 electoral districts. 21 of the 22 electoral districts were conterminous with their namesakeadministrative district. The other electoral district - Vanni - consisted of the administrative districts ofMannar,Mullaitivu andVavuniya. The 36 provincial seats were apportioned as follows:

• Central Province - Kandy 1; Matale 1; Nuwara Eliya 2.
• Eastern Province - Ampara 2; Batticaloa 1; Trincomalee 1.
• Northern Province - Jaffna 1, Vanni 3.
• North Central Province - Anuradhapura 2, Polonnaruwa 2.
• North Western Province - Kurunegala 2, Puttalam 2.
• Sabaragamuwa Province - Kegalla 2; Ratnapura 2.
• Southern Province - Galle 1, Matara 1; Hambantota 2.
• Uva Province - Badulla 2; Monaragala 2.
• Western Province - Colombo 2; Gampaha 1; Kalutara 1.

Kilinochchi Administrative District was created from southernJaffna Administrative District in February 1984. Consequently, Jaffna Electoral District now consists of two administrative districts (Jaffna and Kilinochchi).

The annual updating of theelectoral register in Sri Lanka is done by house-to-house enumeration. Thecivil war prevented house-to-house enumeration from taking place in most of theNorthern Province from the mid-1980s onwards. For these areas the Department of Elections instead took the previous year's register and added anyone who had since turned 18.

The civil war resulted in significant population displacement and emigration from the Northern Province. Two of the biggest displacements occurred in 1995 and 2008. Virtually the entire population of theJaffna peninsula fled to theVanni in 1995 to escape the military onslaught by theSri Lankan military as they tried to recapture the peninsula from the rebelLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Most of the population of the Vanni were displaced in 2008 as they fled the military onslaught by the Sri Lankan military to recapture the Vanni from the LTTE. Hundreds of thousands fled abroad from the Northern Province during the civil war. Tens of thousands also fled to other parts of Sri Lanka outside the conflict zone, particularly to the capitalColombo.

As a consequence of all this the electoral register for the Northern Province was overstated for many years. The civil war ended in May 2009 and in 2010 the first house-to-house enumeration in around 25 years took place in most of the Northern Province. The result of the enumeration was that about 300,000 electors were deleted from the electoral register for the Northern Province. Consequently, the total number of parliamentary seats allocated to Jaffna Electoral District, one of the two electoral districts that make up the Northern Province, was reduced from 10 (2009) to 6 (2010). The number of parliamentary seats allocated toVanni Electoral District, the other electoral district in the Northern Province, remained unchanged at 6.

Jaffna Electoral District's problems were exacerbated by the decision of the 1978 Delimitation Commission to allocate it only one of the four provincial seats - the other three provincial seats were allocated to Vanni Electoral District even though at that time Jaffna had more than four times the number of electors than Vanni. This decision meant that 30 years later Jaffna had the same number of total seats (six) as Vanni despite having more than twice the number of electors. Jaffna now also had one fewer seat thanAmpara Electoral District,Hambantota Electoral District andNuwara Eliya Electoral District despite having more electors. It had two fewer seats thanPuttalam Electoral District despite having only 25,000 fewer electors.

The decision by the Department of Elections to reduce Jaffna's seats drew much criticism, particularly by opposition parties.^[6][7] They pointed out that although there are only a small number of people still in IDP camps, tens of thousands had not returned to their homes and were living with relatives due to the existence of High Security Zones and ongoing de-mining. It was not known if all of these people were registered to vote. For most people in the Northern Province rebuilding their lives after the devastating civil war had been far more important than registering to vote. Many also did not have any form of identification to register as they had lost their official documents during the frequent displacements. As result the electoral register for Jaffna Electoral District was likely to be understated. It was also not known if those who had fled to other parts of Sri Lanka like Colombo were registered to vote in those areas. The government and the Department of Elections rejected the criticism, saying that they were only doing what the constitution required them to do.^[8][9]

Registered electors and parliamentary seat allocation changes: 2020 to 2024[10]
Province	Electoral district	Registered electors		Number of allocated seats
		2020	2024	2020	2024	Change (+/-)
Western	Colombo	1,709,209	1,765,351	19	18	1
	Gampaha	1,785,964	1,881,129	18	19	1
	Kalutara	972,319	1,024,244	10	11	1
Central	Kandy	1,129,100	1,191,399	12	12
	Matale	407,569	429,991	5	5
	Nuwara Eliya	577,717	605,292	8	8
Southern	Galle	867,709	903,163	9	9
	Matara	659,587	686,175	7	7
	Hambantota	493,192	520,940	7	7
Northern	Jaffna	571,848	593,187	7	6	1
	Vanni	287,024	306,081	6	6
Eastern	Batticaloa	409,808	449,686	5	5
	Ampara	513,979	555,432	7	7
	Trincomalee	288,868	315,925	4	4
North Western	Kurunegala	1,348,787	1,417,226	15	15
	Puttalam	614,374	663,673	8	8
North Central	Anuradhapura	693,634	741,862	9	9
	Polonnaruwa	331,109	351,302	5	5
Uva	Badulla	668,166	705,772	9	9
	Monaragala	372,155	399,166	6	6
Sabaragamuwa	Ratnapura	877,582	923,736	11	11
	Kegalle	684,189	709,622	9	9
National List	—	—	—	29	29
Total	—	16,263,885	17,140,354	225	225

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