One striking factor of the Sri Lankan Presidential elections is that incumbent President or the ruling party had always been re-elected by the voter who always displayed a remarkable keenness to elect the sitting President or re-elect the party. President J R Jayewardene and President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who sought second terms, were re-elected in 1982 and 1999 respectively.

The only occasion there was a change of the ruling party was in 1994 when the incumbent D B Wijetunga did not contest. The executive Presidency was established under the new constitution adopted in 1978 and the then Prime Minister J R Jayewardene became the first Executive President without an election. Jayewardene was sworn in as the first Executive President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on February 4, 1978.

Sri Lankan voters had to wait for four more years to cast their votes in a presidential election. For the first time they exercised their voting right at a presidential election on October 20, 1982, when incumbent President Jayewardene sought a second term. 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.

The main opposition party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) fielded Hector Kobbekaduwa as party leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike was deprived of her civic rights after controversial recommendations were made by a Presidential Inquiry.

The re-election bid of J. R. Jayewardene became comparatively an easy one for two reasons. Kobbekaduwa was seen as a weak candidate and Mrs. Bandaranaike could not even canvass for him because her civic rights were taken away by the Jayewardene regime. Furthermore, the former leftist allays LSSP and CP fielded their own candidates and JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera and ACTC leader Kumar Ponnambalam also entered the fray cutting into opposition vote bank.

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. SLFP candidate Hector Kobbekaduwa was able to secure 25,48,438 votes.

In the second Presidential election held in 1988, the United National Party fielded Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa as its Presidential candidate. This time the SLFP did not have any problem deciding their candidate as SLFP leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike had been given her civic rights by this time.

In the election held on December 19, 1988 the polling was relatively less due to unsettled conditions in many parts of the country. Only 5,186,223 voters (55.32 %) out of the 9,375,742 registered voters cast their votes.

At the final count incumbent Prime Minister 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.

President Premadasa 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 and D. B. Wijetunga, the then Prime Minister was elevated to the Presidency.

Wijetunga did not seek a second term and Chandrika Kumratunga of the United People’s Freedom Alliance was elected President polling 62 percent of the votes. She has decided to go for a second term after completion of five years and in the Presidential election of 1999, she was re-elected defeating the UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe.

In the next Presidential election too the incumbent ruling party, the UPFA succeeded in retaining power, though with a new candidate, the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. This time too, the losing candidate was UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe.

President Rajapaksa, after the completion of a highly successful four years of his six year tenure, now seeks re-election on a highly advantageous background in which all his predecessors who sought re-election have succeeded in retaining the Presidency.