The island nation of Sri Lanka has a semi presidential system of government where the head of the government is the president. Apart from having a president, Sri Lanka has a prime minister who is second in command after the president. Power is divided into three arms of government judiciary, executive, and legislature. Since independence, the county has had three constitutions and by 2015 it had been amended 19 times.

Sri Lankans above 18 years are illegible to vote during the general elections in the country. The general elections are held after five years. A presidential candidate must be at least 30 years old to vie for the seat and can only be elected for two terms of 5 years. The prime minister is appointed by the president, whose office does not have a limit an individual can serve. There are 225 elected members who make up the parliament of Sri Lanka and serve for five years. As of 2012, there were 67 political parties registered in the country and about 30 had never engaged in active politics. In the same year the Elections Department suspended about 30 political parties in the country for failing to submit relevant documents.


The current parliament building of Sri Lanka is on a Duwa island in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, which is the administrative capital (Colombo is the commercial capital). Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte was built in 1979. Architecture Deshamanya Geoffrey Bawa drew the plan used to build the parliament, and it features a regional modernism style. Sri Lanka parliament was built by Mitsui Group of companies from Japan, and was completed on time and opened by President J. R. Jayewardene on April 29, 1982. The building is on Duwa Island in Lake Diyawanna.

Sri Lanka is a multi-party state and the political landscape in the country is characterized by many political parties. Among them is the National Unity Alliance, National Union of Workers, Socialist Alliance, United National Front party among others. The politics of Sri Lanka in the last two decades has been controlled by two political parties, the United National Party and the Freedom Party. The two political parties have formed governments since independence. Although the two parties are dominant, coalitions have been formed with smaller parties to rule Sri Lanka

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018

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