Sri Lankan national referendum, 1982
| 1982 Sri Lanka National Referendum | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Extends life of parliament by six years | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Yes
No
The 1982 Sri Lankan national referendum took place on December 22, 1982, giving the people of Sri Lanka the option to extend the life of parliament by 6 years. It was the first and so far only national referendum to be held in Sri Lanka. The referendum was called for by President J. R. Jayawardene, who had been elected to a fresh six-year term as President in October 1982. With the life of the current parliament due to expire in August 1983, Jayawardene faced the possibility of his ruling United National Party losing its massive supermajority in parliament if regular general elections were held. He therefore proposed a referendum to extend the life of parliament, with its constituents unchanged, thereby permitting the United National Party to maintain its two-thirds parliamentary majority.
President Jayawardene claimed that he needed the existing parliament to complete work on the programs he had begun, hence the referendum to extend its term. Opposition parties saw the referendum as a dictatorial move by Jayawardene, strongly opposed the referendum and campaigned to defeat the proposed extension of parliament via referendum.
At the polls, voters were presented the proposal to extend the life of parliament, and asked to vote either “yes” or “no”. Over 54 percent of votes cast were in favor on extending the life of parliament. The existing parliament was therefore extended for six further years beginning in August 1983, and served out its mandate until the 1989 general elections.
Since independence, Sri Lanka has been continuously led by either the United National Party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, or coalitions headed by one of the two parties. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party, led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike, won a 5-year term in the 1970 General Elections, obtaining over the two-thirds supermajority in Parliament required pass constitutional amendments. Bandaranaike proceeded to change the Constitution of Sri Lanka in 1972, and in the process unilaterally extended the life of parliament by 2 years, to 1977.
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