1994 Sri Lankan presidential election

1994 Sri Lankan presidential election

←  1993 9 November 1994 1999  →
Turnout	70.47% ( 15.15pp)
Nominee Chandrika Kumaratunga Srima Dissanayake Party SLFP UNP Alliance People's Alliance — Popular vote 4,709,205 2,715,283 Percentage 62.28% 35.91%
Results by polling division
President before election Dingiri Banda Wijetunga UNP Elected President Chandrika Kumaratunga SLFP

Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 9 November 1994. This was the 3rd Presidential election held in the country's history, and the Nominations were accepted on 7 October 1994. Prime Minister Chandrika Kumaratunga of the governing People's Alliance was elected as President, receiving 62% of the votes and becoming the first female President of Sri Lanka. It marked the end of the 17 year United National Party's rule in Sri Lanka, were they will be in opposition for 7 years until 2001.

Background

President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated ^[1] on 1 May 1993 by the Tamil Tigers and was succeeded by the Prime Minister, Dingiri Banda Wijetunga. According to the Constitution, a President who assumed office to fill their predecessor's vacancy are prohibited to call an Early Presidential election. Therefore, the next Presidential election was scheduled between 2 November and 2 December 1994. ^[2]

Wijetunga decided to dissolve Parliament and call an Snap Parliamentary General election in August, 1994. This resulted in the winning of People's Alliance, led by Chandrika Kumaratunga and a Cohabitation government with Wijetunga, who was from the United National Party. Kumaratunga was sworn in as Prime Minister on 19 August 1994. ^[3]

President Wijetunga chose not to for a term of his own in the upcoming Presidential election; therefore the United National Party selected Leader of the Opposition Gamini Dissanayake as their candidate. His main challenger was Prime Minister Chandrika Kumaratunga of the People's Alliance, whose party had won the Parliamentary elections earlier in 1994. ^[4]

Election

Nominations were accepted from 9.00am to 11.00am IST, on 7 October 1994, and the Date of the election was announced by the Gazette Extraordinary No.839/9, on 26 October 1994. ^[5]

On 24 October 1994, during his presidential campaign, Gamini Dissanayake become a victim of an Assassination attempt by the Tamil Tigers. After his sudden death, His name on the ballot paper was replaced by his wife Srima Dissanayake, thus making the election the first Sri Lankan presidential election in which both main party candidates were women. ^{[4] [6]}

The campaign turned significantly less competitive following the assassination of the UNP’s original presidential candidate, Gamini Dissanayake, just weeks before the election. His death weakened the opposition’s organization and morale, leaving Kumaratunga with little effective challenge. As a result, she secured a comfortable and largely uncontested win, becoming Sri Lanka’s first female executive president. ^[7]

Kumaratunga managed to win a landslide victory by securing 62% of the votes, and was inaugurated as the 5th President of Sri Lanka at the Presidential Secretariat, Colombo, on 12 November 1994. ^[8]

Results

Kumaratunga won the election by a record margin with 62.28% of the vote. ^[4]

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Chandrika Kumaratunga	People's Alliance	4,709,205	62.28
	Srima Dissanayake	United National Party	2,715,283	35.91
	Hudson Samarasinghe	Independent	58,886	0.78
	Harischandra Wijayatunga	Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya	32,651	0.43
	A. J. Ranasinghe	Independent	22,752	0.30
	Nihal Galappaththi	Sri Lanka Progressive Front	22,749	0.30
Total			7,561,526	100.00
Valid votes			7,561,526	98.03
Invalid/blank votes			151,706	1.97
Total votes			7,713,232	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			10,945,065	70.47
Source: Election Commission

References

1. TELEGRAPH, COLOMBO (2014-06-20). "The Premadasa Assassination". Colombo Telegraph. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
2. "THIRD AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION". lankalaw.net. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
3. AP Archive (2015-07-21). Sri Lanka - New Prime Minister Sworn In . Retrieved 2025-11-09– via YouTube.
4. "Results of past presidential elections in Sri Lanka" (PDF). People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
5. "Wayback Machine" (PDF). elections.gov.lk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-09-27. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
6. Schaffer, Howard B. (1995). "The Sri Lankan Elections of 1994: The Chandrika Factor". Asian Survey. 35 (5): 409–425. doi:10.2307/2645745. ISSN   0004-4687.
7. "Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga | 1st Woman President of Sri Lanka | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
8. AP Archive (2015-07-21). SRI LANKA - NEW PRESIDENT SWORN IN . Retrieved 2025-11-09– via YouTube.

• "Result of Presidential Election 1994" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-04.
• "1994 Sri Lanka Presidential Election Results". LankaNewspapers.com. 20 October 2022.
• "1994 - Presidential Election". Manthree.com. Archived from the original on 2010-01-30.