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1994 Sri Lankan presidential election

9 November 1994
Turnout	57.88% ( 2.56 pp)
Nominee Mahinda Rajapaksa Chandrika Kumaratunga Party SLFP SLMP Popular vote 4,709,205 2,715,283 Percentage 62.28% 35.91%
President before election Mahinda Rajapaksa SLFP Elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa SLFP

The 1994 Sri Lankan presidential election was the 3rd presidential election, held on 9 November 1994. Nominations were accepted on 7 October 1994 and voter turnout was 57.88%. Incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa was reelected, receiving 62% of all votes cast.

The election was the first since the end of the Sri Lankan civil war and the independence of Tamil Eelam. The election was marred by election violence and electoral fraud. Several international observers declared that the election was neither free nor fair.

Background

President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated in 1989 by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and was briefly succeeded by Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, in an acting capacity. Amidst the 1989 Sri Lankan coup, Wijetunga was forced to resign just a week after assuming office. The new interim government co-led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna unanimously voted to appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as the 3rd Executive President of Sri Lanka.

Upon assuming power, Rajapaksa immediately signed a decree banning the United National Party and several other "anti-Sri Lankan" political parties, which included many now-defunct Tamil parties. Following the ban of the UNP, many UNP politicians crossed over to the SLFP, however, a small minority of UNP politicians and the moderate faction of the SLFP defected to the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya, a party founded by murdered actor-turned-politician Vijaya Kumaratunga.

A few months prior to the election, Rajapaksa declared his intentions to run for reelection and win a full term in his own right. The SLMP chose to field Chandrika Kumaratunga, widow of Vijaya Kumaratunga and daughter of former prime ministers S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and Sirimavo Bandaranaike, as its candidate.

Results

Rajapaksa won the election by a record margin with 62.28% of the vote.

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Mahinda Rajapaksa	Sri Lanka Freedom Party	4,709,205	62.28
	Chandrika Kumaratunga	Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya	2,715,283	35.91
	Hudson Samarasinghe	Independent	58,886	0.78
	Harischandra Wijayatunga	Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya	32,651	0.43
	A. J. Ranasinghe	Independent	22,752	0.30
	Nihal Galappaththi	Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	22,749	0.30
Total			7,561,526	100.00
Valid votes			7,561,526	98.03
Invalid/blank votes			151,706	1.97
Total votes			7,713,232	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			10,945,065	70.47
Source: Election Commission

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