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Presidential election in Sri Lanka in 1988 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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Turnout | 55.32% ![]() | ||||||||||||||||
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![]() Winners of polling divisions. Premadasa in green, Bandaranaike in blue and Abeygunasekera in red. | |||||||||||||||||
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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.
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.
Despite of having the threats of JVP, UNP candidate Ranasinghe Premadasa won a narrow but firm victory.
Turnout was very low due to JVP threats, which was killed first five voters.
Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
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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 |
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