1988 Sri Lankan presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 19 December 1988. Nominations were accepted on 10 November 1988. Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa of the governing United National Party was elected, receiving 50.4% of all votes cast and defeating both the Sri Lanka Freedom Party candidate, former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya candidate, Ossie Abeygunasekera.

1988 Sri Lankan presidential election

19 December 1988
Turnout	55.32% 25.74 pp
Nominee Ranasinghe Premadasa Sirimavo Bandaranaike Party UNP SLFP Popular vote 2,569,199 2,289,860 Percentage 50.43% 44.95%
Winners of polling divisions. Premadasa in green, Bandaranaike in blue and Abeygunasekera in red.
President before election J. R. Jayewardene UNP Elected President Ranasinghe Premadasa UNP

The election was held amidst both the Sri Lankan Civil War and the 1987–1989 JVP insurrection. Voter turnout was only 55.32%, substantially lower than the previous election and the lowest turnout for a Sri Lankan presidential election.

Background

During the 1988 election, Sri Lanka was in chaos. In the north and east, soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force battled Tamil Tiger rebels. In the south, government death squads engaged in deadly violence with equally brutal militants of the Sinhala-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Effective campaigning for both the government and opposition was barely possible.

Both major party candidates promised to abrogate the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord negotiated by outgoing UNP president J. R. Jayewardene and would ask Indian troops to leave the country.

Voting was not held in the LTTE-controlled areas of the north and east.

Results

Aided by its control of the state-owned media, UNP candidate Ranasinghe Premadasa won a narrow but firm victory.

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Ranasinghe Premadasa	United National Party	2,569,199	50.43
	Sirimavo Bandaranaike	Sri Lanka Freedom Party	2,289,860	44.95
	Ossie Abeygunasekera	Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya	235,719	4.63
Total			5,094,778	100.00
Valid votes			5,094,778	98.24
Invalid/blank votes			91,445	1.76
Total votes			5,186,223	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			9,375,742	55.32
Source: Election Commission

References

• "Presidential Election - 19.12.1988" (PDF). Election Commission of Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
• "1988 Sri Lanka Presidential Election Results". LankaNewspapers.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2021.