Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 1977

8th Sri Lankan parliamentary election

21 July 1977

All 168 seats to the National State Assembly 85 seats were needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   Leader Junius Richard Jayewardene A. Amirthalingam Sirimavo Bandaranaike Party United National Party Tamil United Liberation Front Sri Lanka Freedom Party Leader since 1973 1977 1960 Leader's seat Colombo West Kankesanthurai Attanagalla Last election 17 Seats, 37.91% New Party 91 Seats, 36.86% Seats won 140 18 8 Seat change 123 18 83 Popular vote 3,179,221 421,488 1,855,331 Percentage 50.92% 6.75% 29.72%

Winners of polling divisions. UNP in green, TULF in yellow and SLFP in blue.

Prime Minister before election Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sri Lanka Freedom Party Prime Minister-designate Junius Richard Jayewardene United National Party

The 1977 Sri Lankan election heralded the beginning of a new period of Sri Lanka's history - a period of unprecedented violence.

Background

Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike had become extraordinarily unpopular. Her economic policies had led to industrial growth and self-reliance, but was insufficient to overcome unemployment. Constitutionally, she had taken advantage of the 1972 constitution to delay the election until 1977, instead of 1975 as would have been the case under the old Soulbury constitution. The government's strong Sinhala nationalist stance had led to unrest in the Tamil north; in response, an island-wide state of emergency was imposed, causing hardship to many people. The UF coalition Bandaranaike had built for the 1970 elections had disintegrated.

By contrast, the United National Party had made a surprising comeback since its 1970 humiliation. Under the leadership of J.R. Jayewardene it had assiduously built up its ground organization. The UNP promised to solve the ethnic problem with a devolution package. Economically, it proposed opening up the Sri Lankan economy again. Constitutionally, the UNP called for replacing the Westminster-based political system with one modelled along French lines. Most importantly, it promised a free extra ration of eight pounds of cereal (the so-called eta ata), on top of the existing ration of two kilograms of rice.

More portentous was the status of the Tamil parties. The old federalist Tamil parties had merged to form the Tamil United Liberation Front, led by Appapillai Amirthalingam, which had gone beyond regional autonomy to openly call for independence of the Tamil-speaking regions of the country.

Results

The UNP won the largest landslide in Sri Lankan history (due to the first-past-the-post system). For the first time, a Tamil party won the second-highest number of seats in Parliament and became the Official Opposition.

Abeyratne Pilapitiya of the UNP was elected MP for Kalawana, but was subsequently unseated in an election petition. Sarath Muttetuwegama of the Communist Party was returned to Parliament in the ensuing by-election.

The 1977 election was the only one ever held under the 1972 constitution. ^[1]

Electorate Results

Western Province

Colombo District

Gampaha District

Kalutara District

Central Province

Matale District

Kandy District

Nuwaraeliya District

Southern Province

Galle District

Matara District

Hambantota District

Northern Province

Jaffna District

Vanni District

Eastern Province

Trincomalee District

Batticalao District

Ampara District

North Western Province

Puttalam District

Kurunegala District

North Central Province

Anuradapura District

Polonnaruwa District

Uva Province

Badulla District

Monaragala District

Sabaragamuwa Province

Kegalla District

Ratnapura District

Source ^{[3] [4]}

Notes

References

• "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1977" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. 
• "1977 General Election Results". LankaNewspapers.com. 
• "Table 38 Parliament Election (1977)". Sri Lanka Statistics. 10 February 2009. 
• Rajasingham, K. T. (26 January 2002). "Chapter 24: Tamil militancy - a manifestation". Sri Lanka: The Untold Story. Asia Times. 
• Rajasingham, K. T. (2 February 2002). "Chapter 25: War or peace?". Sri Lanka: The Untold Story. Asia Times. 

Elections and referendums in Sri Lanka
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