1982 Sri Lankan national referendum

Since independence, Sri Lanka has been continuously led by either the United National Party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, or coalitions headed by one of the two parties. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party, led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike, won a 5-year term in the 1970 General Elections, obtaining over the two-thirds supermajority in Parliament required pass constitutional amendments. Bandaranaike proceeded to change the Constitution of Sri Lanka in 1972, and in the process unilaterally extended the life of parliament by 2 years, to 1977.[2]

By 1977 the SLFP government was deeply unpopular, and the United National Party headed by J. R. Jayawardene won the 1977 general election by a large majority, obtaining 140 of the 168 seats in parliament—almost five-sixths of the seats. The SLFP won just 8 seats, to become only the third largest party in parliament, behind the Tamil United Liberation Front, who won 18 seats based entirely on votes from the Tamil majority regions in the north and east of Sri Lanka.[3] Following the victory, the UNP used their two-thirds majority in Parliament to create a new constitution, which added the position of Executive President, introduced proportional representation to elect members to Parliament, which was to be expanded to 225 members, and extended of the terms of elected Presidents and Parliament to 6 years from the date of the election. In 1978 Jayewardene named himself President of Sri Lanka, and promised a pro-Western foreign policy and economic development through the introduction of a system of free enterprise.[3]

Subsequently, the first direct vote to elect a President of Sri Lanka was held in 1982, with President Jayewardene obtaining 52% of votes cast.[4] Former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike was stripped of her civic rights in 1980 on charges of abuse of power during her term as Prime Minister, and was unable to contest in the election.[4][5] Hence the little-known Hector Kobbekaduwa was put forward as the candidate of the SLFP, and he obtained 35% of the popular vote.[2] This marked the 1st time in 30 years that an incumbent party had won a national election in Sri Lanka. The last time this happened was when the United National Party, led by D. S. Senanayake, won the 1952 general election.

As executive President, Jayawadene possessed vast power in determining government policy. However he needed the approval of parliament to pass budgets and major economic decisions.[3] Therefore, his margin of victory posed a problem to the UNP. With general elections upcoming under the new constitution, they knew that a similar result to the presidential election will see the party lose its supermajority. By 1982, as a result of a number of by elections, the UNP had picked up a net of two seats for a total of 142, well above the two-thirds majority required to pass constitutional changes.[3][4] Jayawardene admitted to the media that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party could win at least 60 seats in elections to the expanded parliament, a possibility he termed disastrous to the country.[3][4]

In order to maintain the parliamentary supermajority of the UNP, Jayawardene decided to extend the life of parliament without holding direct elections. In order to do this, the government was required to obtain support from over two-thirds of parliament, and Jaywardene also decided to have the extension approved by the people in a national referendum. As the first step, the government presented the 4th amendment to the constitution, which proposed to extend the life of the parliament by six years, to August 4, 1989.[2] The bill was found to be constitutional by the Supreme Court, in a 4-3 majority ruling. The ruling stated "the majority of this court is of the view that the period of the first Parliament may be extended as proposed (if) passed with the special majority (in parliament) required by Article 83 and submitted to the people at a referendum."[2]

The bill was subsequently presented to parliament on November 5, 1982.[2] All members of the UNP who were present in the house voted in favor of the bill. As did two members of the SLFP, Maithripala Senanayake and Halim Ishak. Senanayake told the house that he had no moral right to oppose the amendment as he had previously supported the extension of parliament by two years in 1975. Appapillai Amirthalingam, leader of the main opposition Tamil United Liberation Front told parliament that his party would oppose the bill, but all members of the TULF abstained from voting. The only votes against the bill were cast by Lakshman Jayakody, Anura Bandaranaike and Ananda Dassanayake of the SLFP and Sarath Muttetuwegama, a member of the Communist Party. The bill was passed by well over the required two-thirds majority, with 142 votes in favor and four votes against.[2]

Following the approval of the bill by parliament, President Jayawardene issued a gazette notification on November 14, 1982 requesting Chandrananada de Silva, the Commissioner of Elections, to hold a nationwide referendum on December 22, 1982.[2] At the polling booths, voters were to be presented with a ballot paper containing the following question,

Do you approve the Bill entitled the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution published in Gazette Extraordinary No 218/23 of November 13, 1982, which provides inter alia that unless sooner dissolved the First parliament shall continue until August 4, 1989, and no longer and shall thereupon stand dissolved.[1][2]

Voters were then asked to vote either “yes” or “no”. A “yes” vote was signified by lamp, and a “no” vote by a pot. According to the Referendum Act No 7 of 1981, which was certified by Jayawardene on February 27, 1981, in order of the referendum to pass it had to meet one of two conditions.[2]

• If more than two-thirds of registered voters cast their vote at the referendum, a simple majority had to vote “yes”
• If less than two-thirds of registered voters cast their vote at the referendum, in addition to a simple majority voting “yes”, at least one-third of all registered voters had to vote “yes”.

Claiming that sections of the SLFP conspired to assassinate him, leaders of the SLFP and others soon after the Presidential election and take power in a coup, Jayawardene had imposed a state of emergency over the country after the presidential election in October.[3] Even though there were no sign of trouble, Jayawardene did not lift the state of emergency.[3][4] Therefore, the December referendum became the first vote in Sri Lanka to take place while the country was under the state of emergency.

The opposition parties campaigned strongly to defeat the referendum. Although former Prime Minister Srimavo Bandaranaike had been stripped of her civic rights, she was allowed to lead the opposition campaign.[3] She addressed five or six meetings a day, drawing large crowds. She was joined by a variety of opposition parties, including Tamil parties and communist parties. Although they differed in opinion in most other issues, they joined together in the lead up to the referendum.[3]

Jayawardene too campaigned vigorously in support of the referendum, arguing that it was sometimes necessary to engage in what may seem to be undemocratic measures in the larger interests of the nation.[3] He also warned that holding parliamentary election would give increased power to people he termed "Naxalites", a band of Communist extremists who preach violent revolution.[3] He also attempted to pass the referendum as a vote of confidence on the right wing economic policies of his government.[2]

The referendum was held on December 22, 1982. Turnout at the election was 70.82 percent, out of a total of 8,145,015 Sri Lankans eligible to vote. Over 54 percent voted in favor of extending the life of parliament, an increase from the 52 percent Jayawardene obtained at the presidential election 3 months before. This was in spite of a large majority of voters in Tamil majority areas of the country voting against the referendum. In total, majorities in the 120 of the 168 electorates voted in favor of the referendum.[2]

• Politics of Sri Lanka

• Sri Lanka Referendum Act No 7 of 1981