Spectrum | Sundayobserver.lk

Sri Lankans who enjoyed universal franchise since 1931, for the first time exercised their voting right at a presidential election on October 20, 1982. That was after Sri Lanka adopted a new Constitution in 1978 replacing the 1972 Republican Constitution shifting the executive powers from the Parliament to the President, the Head of State and the Commander in Chief of Armed Forces.

J. R. Jayewardene was sworn in as the first Executive President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on February 4, 1978.

He became the first executive President not after a presidential election but after the Constitutional change in 1978, he became the Prime Minister, after the UNP's victory at the general election held on July 22,1977.

He continued to be the President for more than four and half years till October, 1982.

Sri Lankan voters had their first presidential election after the completion of the first term of the first executive President.

The 1982 Presidential election became a novel experience for Sri Lankan voters as they got the opportunity to elect their Head of State directly through their vote.

On August 30,1982, then Elections Commissioner, issued orders to hold the first presidential elections, under the powers vested with him under Section 2 of the Presidential Elections Act. Nominations were called for elections from 8 am to 11 am on September 17, 1982.

This election to elect the President was called when Sri Lanka Freedom Party leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike was deprived of her civic rights after the findings of a Presidential Inquiry.

However, the first Presidential election became an important election for the country as the issue of deprivation of Sirimavo Bandaranaike's civic rights was one of the biggest issues.

During the nomination period on September 17, 1982 nine candidates presented their nomination papers to the Elections Commissioner at the Colombo Town Hall. However, only six nominations out of the nine were accepted by the Commissioner as candidates. The first presidential election was fixed for October 20, 1982.

The nomination papers of Mudiyanse Tennekoon, N.H. Keerthiratne and S.C. Weerasooriya were rejected by the Commissioner.

Six candidates from six recognised political parties mere deemed eligible to contest the election.

President J. R. Jayewardene contested the election from the United National Party for his re-election bid under the Elephant symbol whilst the Sri Lanka Freedom Party fielded Hector Kobbekaduwa as their Presidential candidate under the Hand symbol. Apart from these two main Presidential candidates Colvin R. de Silva from the Lanka Sama Samaja Party under the symbol Key, Vasudeva Nanayakkara from the Nawa Sama Samaja Party under the symbol Umbrella, the G. G. Ponnambalam from Akila Ilankai Tamil Congress under the symbol Bicycle and Rohana Wijeweera from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna under the symbol Bell were eligible to contest the first Presidential election.

The re-election bid of J. R. Jayewardene became comparatively an easy one as almost all major political parties from the Opposition had fielded candidates for the Presidential election.

All candidates from the opposition criticised each other giving an easy victory for President Jayewardene his re-election bid. He pledged to defend democratic rights of the people and to create a law abiding society.

The SLFP candidate was critical of the economic policies, corruption and malpractices of the J. R. Jayewardene regime. The restoration of civic rights of Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the establishment of a fully Socialist Government were the main slogans of the campaign of SLFP candidate Kobbekaduwa.

All three other candidates, Colvin R. de Silva, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Rohana Wijeweera criticised both UNP and the SLFP during the election campaign. The sole Tamil candidate G.G. Ponnambalam said that Tamils should be united to show their strength at the presidential election.

On the elections date an 81.06 percent voter turnout was reported as polls were conducted in 6,985 polling stations countrywide. A total of 6,602,617 voters cast their votes.

Despite many predictions that J. R. Jayewardene would lose the election, he managed to secure 3,450,811 votes, which was equivalent to 52.91 percent of the total valid votes. He was thus eligible to continue his second term of Presidency for another six years. J.R. Jayewardene was able to secure majority votes in almost all the districts except for the Jaffna district where Hector Kobbekaduwa had a clear lead.

That was 39.07 percent of the total valid votes. Therefore, Jayewardene had a clear majority securing more than 50 percent of the total valid votes.

Rohana Wijeweera from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna secured 273,428 votes, the third highest. G. G. Ponnambalam from the Tamil Congress secured 1,73,934 votes. The other two candidates were able to secure less than 100,000 votes (Dr. Colvin R. de Silva 57,532 and Vasudeva Nanayakkara 17,005). However, all four candidates lost their deposits as they were unable to secure five per cent of the total valid votes.

After the turbulent second term of President J.R. Jayewardene, in 1988 there was a continued debate about the possibility of fielding him for the next Presidential election. Prior to the announcement of the Presidential election President J. R. Jayewardene had to take a decision about his candidacy at the next election as suggestions were made to amend the 1978 Constitution enabling him to contest for a third term.

However, President Jayewardene took a decision not to go ahead with this move. But the United National Party had a problem about deciding on their candidate for the next presidential election since they had to select their candidate out of R. Premadasa, the then Prime Minister, and two powerful Minist ers of the J. R. Jayewardene Government, Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake.

President J. R. Jayewardene decided to have the presidential election after the United National Party working committee decided to field R. Premadasa as their presidential candidate. This time the SLFP did not have any problem deciding about their candidate as SLFP leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike had been given her civic rights by this time.

The nominations for the second presidential elections were called on October 21, 1988 by the then Elections Commissioner and nominations were accepted on November 10, 1988 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Since it was a period marred by violence both in the North East and in the South due to LTTE activities, the Indian Peace Keeping Force's presence and the JVP insurrection in the South special security arrangements were in place around the Colombo Town hall building where the Elections Commissioner was scheduled to accept nominations.

This time only three candidates handed over their nominations. Prime Minister R. Premadasa from the UNP (Elephant), Sirimavo Bandaranaike from the SLFP (Hand) and Osvin Abeygunasekera from the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (Eye) handed over their nominations.

The campaigns of the three candidates were based on contemporary issues North East problem, the presence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka and poverty alleviation.

The SLFP candidate Sririmavo Bandaranaike started her campaign much earlier from Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.

She had her first election rally after handing over nominations at Nittambuwa on November 13, 1988.

The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Liberal Party, All Ceylon Tamil Congress and the PLOTE supported her candidacy. The Communist Party and the Nava Sama Samaja Party remained uncommitted to any candidate.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna which did not contest, carried out a massive campaign to urge the public to boycott the election.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike carried out her election campaign against the Indo Lanka Peace Accord, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the presence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka, suppression of political supporters and human rights violations by the Government.

Prime Minister Premadasa carried out a well orchestrated election campaign addressing almost all the issues concerning the public. He pledged to start the poverty alleviation program Janasaviya, to send back the Indian Peace Keeping Force, de-merger of the North East, to provide electricity and housing facilities, and to provide a mid day meal for schoolchildren. He began his election campaign from Kandy.

Osvin Abeygunasekera from the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party carried out his campaign independently in support of the Provincial Council system and the Indo Lanka Peace Accord.

Due to an unofficial curfew imposed by the JVP in many parts of the country urging the public to boycott the elections, there was a low voter turnout on the elections date. People did not cast their vote fearing death threats and blockade of public transport especially in the Southern province and many other provinces. Only 5,186,223 voters (55.32 %) out of the 9,375,742 registered voters cast their votes on election day since it was not held in a peaceful environment.

Elections Commissioner Chandrananda de Silva announced the final result of the election. At the final count Ranasinghe Premadasa emerged victorious obtaining 2,569,199 votes (50.43% of the total valid votes) against the 2,289,960 (44.95 %) votes obtained by his main opponent Sirimavo Bandaranaike from the SLFP.

The UNP secured a lead in the districts of Colombo, Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Hambantota, Vanni, Batticaloa, Digamadulla, Trincomalee, Kurunegala, Polonnaruwa, Badulla, Moneragala, Ratnapura and Kegalle. The SLFP won the districts of Gampaha, Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Jaffna and Anuradhapura.

It was with a small margin Ranasinghe Premadasa secure more than 50 percent of the valid votes. He got only 21,810 votes more than 50 percent of the total valid votes. Osvin Abeygunasekera from the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party obtained 235,719 (4.63%) votes and lost the deposit.

Following his victory at the presidential election Ranasinghe Premadasa took oaths on January 2, 1989 as the third executive President of Sri Lanka and remained in power until he was killed in a suicide blast carried out by a LTTE cadre on May 1, 1993 when he was participating in the UNP May Day rally. D. B. Wijetunga, the then Prime Minister was elevated to the Presidency. He was the only Executive President who was not elected at a presidential election.

Presidential Election - 1982
Nominations date - September 17, 1982
Elections date - October 20, 1982

Candidate 		PoliticalParty 			Symbol 		Votes Obtained 	Percentage
J.R. Jayewardene 	United National Party 	(UNP) 	Elephant 		3,450,811 		52.91%
H.R.S.B. Kobbekaduwa 	Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) 		Hand 		2,548,438 		39.07%
Rohana Wijeweera Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna 	(JVP) 	Bell 		273,428 		4.19%
G.G. Ponnambalam Akila Illankai Tamil Congress (AITC) 	Bicycle 		173,934 		2.67%
Dr. Colvin R de Silva 	Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) 	Key 		58,531 		0.90%
Vasudeva Nanayakkara 	Nawa Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) 		Umbrella 		17,005 		0.26%

Number of registered voters 		8,145,015
Number of polling stations 		6,958
Total polled 			6,602,617 81.06%
Valid votes 			6,522,147
Number of votes 
Equal to one half 			3,261,073 

Candidate who polled more than one-half of the valid votes 
J.R. Jayewardene 

			Presidential Election - 1988 
Nominations date - November 10, 1988 
Elections date - December 19, 1988
		Candidate 		Political Party 		Symbol 		Votes Obtained 	Percentage 
Ranasinghe Premadasa 	United National Party (UNP) 	Elephant 	2,569,199 	50.43% 
Sirimavo Bandaranaike 	Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) 	Hand 		2,289,860 	44.95% 
Osvin Abeygunasekera 	Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP) Eye 		235,719 	4.63% 

Number of Registered Voters 	9,375,742 
Total Polled 			5,186,223 55.32% 
Valid Votes 			6,522,147 
Number of Votes Equal to one half 3,261,073 

Candidate who polled more than one-half the Valid Votes
Ranasinghe Premadasa

1982 - A novel experience; 1986 - Amidst turmoil