The Sri Lankan presidential election of 1988 was the second presidential

President of Sri Lanka

The President of Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the elected head of state and the head of government. The President is a dominant political figure in Sri Lanka. The office was created in 1978 but has grown so powerful there have been calls to restrict or even eliminate its power...

 election

Elections in Sri Lanka

Elections in Sri Lanka gives information on election and election results in Sri Lanka.Sri Lanka elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a six year term by the people...

 of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

. Nominations were accepted on 10 November 1988, and the election was held on 19 December 1988. Electoral participation was 55.32%. Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka is the functional head of the Cabinet of Sri Lanka. However, the President is both head of state and head of government in Sri Lanka...

 Ranasinghe Premadasa

Ranasinghe Premadasa

Ranasinghe Premadasa was the 3rd President of Sri Lanka from January 2, 1989 to May 1, 1993. Before that, he served as the Prime Minister in the government headed by J. R. Jayewardene from February 6, 1978 to January 1, 1989...

 of the governing United National Party

United National Party

The United National Party, often referred to as the UNP ), , is a political party in Sri Lanka. It currently is the main opposition party in Sri Lanka and is headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe...

 was elected, receiving 50.4% of all votes cast.

Background

During the 1988 election, Sri Lanka was in chaos. In the north and east, soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force

Indian Peace Keeping Force

Indian Peace Keeping Force was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990...

 battled Tamil Tiger rebels. In the south, government death squads engaged in deadly violence

Insurrection 1987-89

The 1987-89 insurrection in Sri Lanka, in which around 50,000 lives were lost, was carried out by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, a Marxist Sinhalese political party in Sri Lanka.-Leadup to conflict in the 1980s:...

 with equally brutal militants of the Sinhala-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna

The Janathā Vimukthi Peramuṇa is a Marxist-Leninist, Communist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was involved in two armed uprisings against the ruling governments in 1971 and 1987-89...

. Effective campaigning by the democratic opposition was barely possible.

Both of the major party candidates promised to abrogate the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord

Indo-Sri Lanka Accord

The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was an accord signed in Colombo on July 29, 1987, between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene. The accord was expected to resolve the ongoing Sri Lankan civil war...

 negotiated by outgoing UNP president J. R. Jayewardene

Junius Richard Jayewardene

Junius Richard Jayewardene , famously abbreviated in Sri Lanka as JR, was the first executive President of Sri Lanka, serving from 1978 till 1989. He was a leader of the nationalist movement in Ceylon who served in a variety of cabinet positions in the decades following independence...

and ask Indian troops to leave the country.

Voting was not held in Tiger-controlled areas of the north and east, and violence marred election day in the south.

Results

Aided by its control of the state-owned media, the UNP candidate, Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa, won a narrow but firm victory.