This election was originally scheduled for April 25, 2020, but was postponed in response to COVID-19. 

Sri Lanka Parliament: 5 August 2020

At stake in this election:      

• 225 seats in the Parliament.

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Gotabaya RAJAPAKSA (since 18 November 2019)
• Head of Government: President Gotabaya RAJAPAKSA (since 18 November 2019)
• Deputy Head of Government: Prime Minister Mahinda RAJAPAKSA (since 21 November 2019)
• Assembly: Sri Lanka has a unicameral Parliament with 225 seats. 

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected through a contingent vote system to serve a 5-year term*
• In the Parliament 225 members are elected by open list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies to serve 5-year terms**

* Under the contingent vote system, voters may rank up to three candidates. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round of counting, ballots whose first rankings are eliminated candidates are redistributed to the next-ranked candidates on those ballots. The winner is the candidate with the most votes after this second round of counting.

** Parties must clear a threshold of one-eighth of votes to win seats in the respective constituency. Each voter may cast three preference votes. There are 22 multi-member constituencies containing 196 seats and one nationwide constituency with 29 seats.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: United National Party (UNP) / එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය
  • Leader: Ranil WICKRAMASINGHE
  • Seats won in last election: 106
• Party: United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) / එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය
  • Leader: Mahinda RAJAPAKSA
  • Seats won in last election: 95
• Party: Samagi Jana Balawegaya / සමගි ජනබලවේගය
  • Leader: Sajith PREMADASA
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Tamil National Alliance (TNA) /  தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பு
  • Leader: Rajavarothiam SAMPANTHAN
  • Seats won in last election: 16
• Party: People’s Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, JVP) / ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ
  • ​Leader: Anura Kumara DISSANAYAKA
  • Seats won in last election: 6

Last election:

• The last election for the Parliament was held on 17 August 2015. There were 15,044,490 registered voters, and voter turnout was 74%. The United National Party won 106 seats with 45.66% of the vote. The United People’s Freedom Alliance won 95 seats with 42.38% of the vote. The People’s Liberation Front won 6 seats with 4.87% of the vote. The Lanka Tamil State Party (Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi) won 16 seats with 4.62% of the vote.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 22,889,201 (July 2020 est.)[1]
• Registered Voters: 15,992,096 (2019)[2]

Gender Data:

• Female Population: 11,716,742 (2020 est.)[3]
• Is Sri Lanka a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (17 July 1980)
• Has Sri Lanka ratified CEDAW: Yes (5 October 1981)[4]
• Gender Quota:  No [5]
• Female Candidates in this election: Yes
• Number of Female Legislators: 12 of 225 (5.3%) seats in Parliament [6]
• Human Development Index (HDI) Position: 71 [7]
• Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: High [8]

Disability Data:

• Is Sri Lanka a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)
• Has Sri Lanka ratified CRPD: No [9]
• Population with a disability: 3,308,023 [10]