| Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකා රජය Tamil: இலங்கை அரசாங்கம் | |
 | |
| Formation | 1978; 47 years ago (1978) (under current constitution) |
|---|---|
| Founding document | Constitution of Sri Lanka |
| Jurisdiction | Sri Lanka |
| Website | www.gov.lk |
| Legislative branch | |
| Legislature | Parliament |
| Meeting place | New Parliament Complex |
| Executive branch | |
| Leader | President of Sri Lanka |
| Headquarters | Presidential Secretariat |
| Main organ | Cabinet |
| Judicial branch | |
| Court | Supreme Court of Sri Lanka |
| Seat | Colombo andSri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Colombo District |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of Sri Lanka |
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
TheGovernment of Sri Lanka (GoSL) (Sinhala:ශ්රී ලංකා රජය,romanized: Śrī Laṅkā Rajaya;Tamil:இலங்கை அரசாங்கம்,romanized: Ilaṇkai Aracāṅkam) is aSemi-presidential republic determined by theSri Lankan Constitution. It administers the island from both its commercial capital ofColombo and the administrative capital ofSri Jayawardenepura Kotte.[1]
The Constitution of Sri Lanka has been theconstitution of the island nation ofSri Lanka since its original promulgation by theNational State Assembly on 7 September 1978. It is Sri Lanka's second republican constitution and its third constitution since the country's independence (as Ceylon) in 1948, after theDonoughmore Constitution,Soulbury Constitution, andConstitution of 1972. As of October 2020, it has been formally amended 21 times.
The President, directly elected for a five-year term, ishead of state,head of government,[a]chief executive, andcommander-in-chief of the armed forces. The election occurs under theSri 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 acabinet ofministers responsible to Parliament. The president's deputy is thePrime Minister of Sri Lanka, who leads the ruling party in Parliament. The President can dissolve the cabinet and appoint a new one at any time.
| Office | Name | Party | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| President | Anura Kumara Dissanayake[2] | National People's Power | 23 September 2024 |
| Prime Minister | Harini Amarasuriya | National People's Power | 24 September 2024 |
TheParliament has 225 members, elected for a six-year term, 196 members elected in multi-seatconstituencies and 29 byproportional representation. The President may summon, suspend, or end a legislative session and dissolve Parliament any time after it has served for one year. Parliament reserves the power to make all laws.
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). Since its independence in 1948, Sri Lanka has remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the country. It is set out in the constitution, which defines courts as independent institutions within the traditional framework ofchecks and balances. The Sri Lankan courts are presided over byprofessional judges, judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by thePresident with the nomination of theParliamentary Council, others by theJudicial Service Commission.[3]
Sri Lanka has a legal system which is an amalgam of Englishcommon law,Roman-Dutch civil law andCustomary Law.
Sri Lanka elects on the national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The Parliament has 225 members, elected for a five-year term, and 196 members elected in multi-seat constituencies through a proportional representation system where each party is allocated a number of seats from the quota for each district according to the proportion of the total vote that the party obtains in the district.
Sri Lanka topics | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overviews | |||||||||||||
| History |
| ||||||||||||
| Government |
| ||||||||||||
| Politics | |||||||||||||
| Geography | |||||||||||||
| Economy | |||||||||||||
| Society |
| ||||||||||||
Governments of Asia | |
|---|---|
| Sovereign states |
|
| States with limited recognition | |
| Dependencies and other territories | |
