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Sunday, December 8, 2024

Sri Lanka: 2024 general elections stand out for many firsts

It was an election of many firsts at the 2024 parliamentary election, which saw a historic landslide win for the NPP. Here are some of the highlights:

The United National Party, or its breakaway group, Samagi Jana Balawegaya, had not lost a single Colombo city polling division in 30 years, but this time they lost all of them to the NPP.

The NPP achieved the highest victory margin in parliamentary history, securing 61.56% of the vote.

The NPP won the largest number of polling divisions (152) and electoral districts (21) in parliamentary history.

This was the highest number of seats ever secured by a party in a general election, both at the district level and through the national list.

For the first time under
the proportional representation system, a single party won two-thirds of the seats
in Parliament.

For the first time, a national party secured victories in
the Jaffna and Vanni
electoral districts.

For the first time, 10%
of elected representatives
are women.

For the first time, a party that secured less than 5% of the vote in the last general election emerged as the winner.

Vijitha Herath sets a record for the highest number of preferential votes received by a single candidate, securing 80% of NPP’s votes in the Gampaha district.

Harini Amarasuriya sets a record for the highest number of votes ever received by a woman candidate, obtaining 83% of NPP’s preferential votes in the Colombo district.

This was also the first time that as many as two-thirds of the MPs were first-timers.

Sunday Times

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