Sri Lankan provincial council elections, March 2014
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159 seats across 2 provincial councils |
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| Turnout | 66.35% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Provincial council elections were held in Sri Lanka on 29 March 2014 to elect 159 members to two of the nine provincial councils in the country. 5.9 million Sri Lankans were eligible to vote in the election. Elections to a third provincial council (Uva) were held on 20th of September. Elections to the remaining six provincial councils were not due as they had their last election in 2012 or 2013.
The United People's Freedom Alliance's domination of Sri Lankan elections continued as expected. It retained control of both Southern Provincial Council and Western Provincial Council. However, the UPFA recorded a loss of votes in both provinces as did the main opposition party, the United National Party, in the Western Province. Instead, many analysts assert a large protest vote was evident during this provincial election with many either opting not to vote or to vote for minor parties such as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Democratic Party and Democratic People's Front.
In an attempt to end the Sri Lankan Civil War the Indo-Lanka Accord was signed on 29 July 1987. One of the requirements of the accord was that the Sri Lankan government to devolve powers to the provinces. Accordingly on 14 November 1987 the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act No 42 of 1987. On 3 February 1988 nine provincial councils were created by order. The first elections for provincial councils took place on 28 April 1988 in North Central, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, and Uva provinces. On 2 June 1988 elections were held for provincial councils for Central, Southern and Western provinces. The United National Party (UNP), which was in power nationally, won control of all seven provincial councils.
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