“Will the SLPP get Two-Thirds?” is the “Big Question” of the 2020 Sri Lankan Parliamentary Election. I don’t hope to answer this question, because I don’t know how.

On the other hand, if you are interested in this question and other questions about #GenElecSL2020, understanding how elections work is key. Particularly, how seats are assigned.

Articles 96, 98, 99 and 99A of the Sri Lankan Constitution, collectively provide all the information you need to understand parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka. This article is based on my own notes of these articles, together with some illustrative examples and complementary data. Hope they would be useful to you too.

[Disclaimer: I’m no lawyer, nor constitutional expert. My only qualification for writing this article is that I can (to a point) read and write English. Hence, take my notes with a pinch of salt].

Article 96. Electoral Districts (EDs)

1. Sri Lanka must divide into between 20 and 25 Electoral Districts (EDs). A Delimitation Commission defines the districts, their names and their boundaries.

Currently, Sri Lanka has 22 EDs.

Sri Lanka’s 22 Electoral Districts (Source: https://medium.com/on-politics/the-map-c6fde2919f2c)

2. An entire province could be one ED. Or divided into two or more electoral districts.

Currently, no province is a single ED. The Western, Central, Southern, and Eastern provinces divide into three electoral districts each. The Northern, North-Central, North-Western, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces divide into two each.

3. The boundaries of ED respect the boundaries of Administrative Districts (ADs). Hence, either a) an ED is the same as an AD; or c) an ED is a combination of two or more ADs; or c) an AD is a combination of two ore more EDs.

Sri Lanka has 22 EDs and 25 ADs. Currently, the Jaffna ED is a combination of the Jaffna and Kilinochchi ADs. The Vanni ED is a combination of the Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu ADs.

All the other 20 EDs are the same as an AD.

Sri Lanka has no AD which consists of multiple EDs.

4. The Delimitation commission assigns four seats to each province. And divides these among the EDs.

In this way, Sri Lanka’s nine provinces get 36 seats. The current division among Eds is as follows:

5. Delimitation Commission makes decisions by majority. If there is no majority, the Commission’s Chairperson decides.

6. The Delimitation Commission’s Chairperson communicates decisions to the President.

Article 98. Number of members returned by the several electoral districts and their apportionment among such electoral districts.

1. 196 Seats divide among the Electoral Districts (EDs).

2. Of the 196, 36 divide as described in 96.4.[i.e. four per province, and divide amongst the EDs in each province].

3. Paragraphs 98.4, 98.5, 98.6, 98.7 describe how the remaining 160 [i.e. 196 minus 36]seats are divided.

4. The “Qualifying Number” is defined as follows:

“Qualifying Number” = 
  “Total Number of Registered Voters in entire Country" 
   / 160” ROUNDED DOWN

For example, there are 16,263,885 registered voters for the 2020 General Election. This gives a qualifying number of 101,649.

5. Each ED is assigned “Total Number of Registered Voters in ED / Qualifying Number — rounded down” seats. [Let’s call them “Whole Seats”]

For example, Galle has 867,709 registered voters. Hence, it’s Whole Seats can be computed as follows:

Registered Voters / Qualifying Number
= 867,709 / 101,649
= 8.536Whole Seats = 8
Remainder = 0.536

6. Any balance seats assign in order of EDs with the largest fractional remainder of “Total Number of Registered Voters in ED / Qualifying Number”. [Let’s call these Remainder Seats]

In 2020, 149 seats were assigned as Whole Seats, leaving 11. These were assigned to the EDs with the highest fractional remainders.

The whole seats, remainder seats, the seats from Article 99, the seats from Article 96.4 and the total number of seats for the ED, as as follows:

This method of allocating seats to districts is known as the Hare Quota Largest Remainder Method. As we shall see later, this is also how seats allocate to parties in elections.

7. If there is a tie, i.e. if two or more EDs have the same fractional remainder, seats are assigned by lot.

8. The Election Commissioner publishes the above information in a Gazette.

9. The “Number of Registered Voters” is computed from the register of electors at the time of the relevant election.

Article 99. Proportional Representation (PR)

1. Each Electoral District (ED) has a number of seats, as published in 98.8.

2. Each voter votes for a party or independent group (IG). And also indicates a preference for up to three candidates.

3. Each party/IG submits one nomination paper. Each party/IG may nominate as many candidates equal to the number of seats in the ED plus three.

For example, in 2020 Colombo has 19 seats. Hence, a party/IG contesting Colombo may nominate up to 22 candidates. Similarly, Trincomalee has 4 seats. Hence, parties/IGs contesting there may nominate upto 7 candidates.

4. Each registered voter is entitled to one vote. Even if their names appear on an electoral register in more than one district.

5. Candidates elect from an ED, in order of preference votes.

6a. Parties/IGs with less than 5% of the total votes in the ED disqualify from getting seats for the ED.

For example, in 2015, the JVP received 4.27% of the votes in Kurunegala, and hence were disqualified from getting seats. The 15 seats in Kurunegala were divided amongst the only two parties that exceeded 5%: The UPFA (49.29%, 8 seats) and the UNP (45.87%, 7 Seats).

In the same 2015 election, the JVP received 6.74% of the votes in Colombo, thus qualifying for seats.

6b. For the computation of seats, all votes for disqualified parties/IGs are excluded. The remainder is known as the “Relevant number of votes”:

“Relevant number of votes” = 
  “Total votes in the ED for all parties/IGs” 
    — “Total votes in the ED for parties/IGs disqualified”

In 2015 in Colombo, only the UNP, UPFA and JVP qualified for seats:

The Relevant Number of Votes was 1,196,197. 11,752 votes from parties that failed to reach the 5% threshold, were excluded.

7. The “Resulting Number” of a party/IG in an ED, is defined as follows:

“Resulting Number” = 
  “Relevant Number of Votes" 
    / (Total Seats for ED minus One)” ROUNDED UP

(Note, the “minus one” is set aside for the bonus seat.)

For 2015 Colombo, the Resulting Number was:

“Resulting Number” 
= 1,196,197 / (19 - 1)
= 66455

8. Each Party/IG is assigned “(Total Seats for ED minus One) / Resulting Number of Party/IG — rounded down” seats. [Whole Seats]

9. The balance seats assign in order of EDs with the largest fractional remainder of “(Total Seats for ED minus One) / Resulting Number of Party/IG.” [Remainder Seats]

As I mentioned earlier, this method is known as Hare Quota Largest Remainder Method.

10. The party/IG with the highest number of votes gets an extra “bonus” seat.

The whole seats, remainder seats, bonus seat, and total seats by party for Colombo in 2015 is as follows:

11. If there is a tie, i.e. if two or more Parties/IGs have the same fractional remainder, seats are assigned by lot.

12. In the above calculation, “Rejected Votes” are excluded.

13. If a candidate’s seat becomes vacant, the candidate with the next highest number of preference votes is elected.

Article 99A. Election of Members of Parliament on the basis of the total number of votes polled at a General Election

After 196 seats are allocated based on ED, the remaining 29 seats [which together make up Sri Lanka’s 225 member parliament], are allocated proportional to total votes obtained nationally. Also, known as the “National List”. The allocation method is as described in Paragraphs 98.4, 98.5, 98.6 and 98.7.

For example, the Votes by party, Total Votes, Qualifying Number, Whole seats, Remainder seats, and Total National list seats for the 2015 Parlimentary Election are as follows:

Each party/IG submits a list of candidates who might elect to these seats.

The submissions for 2020 are here.

WRITTEN BY Nuwan I. Senaratne

(Computer Scientist and Musician by training. A writer with interests in Philosophy, Economics, Technology, Politics, Business, the Arts and Fiction.)