1982 Sri Lankan presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka for the first time on 20 October 1982. Incumbent president J. R. Jayewardene of the governing United National Party was elected, receiving 53% of all votes cast.

1982 Sri Lankan presidential election

20 October 1982
Turnout81.06%
 
Nominee J. R. Jayewardene Hector Kobbekaduwa
Party UNP SLFP
Popular vote 3,450,811 2,548,438
Percentage 52.91% 39.07%

Winners of polling divisions. Jayewardene in green and Kobbekaduwa in blue.

President before election

J. R. Jayewardene
UNP

Elected President

J. R. Jayewardene
UNP

Nominations were accepted on 17 September 1982 and electoral participation was 81.06%. The election was described as a fight between capitalism and socialism: Hector Kobbekaduwa, who advocated to carry on the policies of the previous SLFP-led regime of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was expected to undo most of the open market and capitalist reforms brought in by J. R. Jayewardene.

Although the SLFP lost, they managed to win a significant number of votes in Tamil-speaking areas in the north.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.