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Government of Sri Lanka

Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය Tamil: இலங்கை அரசாங்கம்
Emblem of the Government of Sri Lanka
Formation	1978; 47 years ago (1978) (under current constitution)
Founding document	Constitution of Sri Lanka
Jurisdiction	Sri Lanka
Website	www.gov.lk
Legislative branch
Legislature	Parliament
Meeting place	New Parliament Complex
Executive branch
Leader	President of Sri Lanka
Headquarters	Presidential Secretariat
Main organ	Cabinet
Judicial branch
Court	Supreme Court of Sri Lanka
Seat	Colombo and Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Colombo District

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of Sri Lanka
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Executive President of Sri Lanka (10th) Anura Kumara Dissanayake Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (16th) Harini Amarasuriya Cabinet List of Cabinets Ministers Ministries National Security Council Secretary to the President Nandika Sanath Kumanayake Secretary to the Prime Minister G. P. Saputhanthri Secretary to the Cabinet W. M. D. J. Fernando
Legislature Parliament of Sri Lanka (17th) Speaker (23rd) Jagath Wickramaratne Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees Rizvie Salih Deputy Chairperson of Committees Hemali Weerasekara Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake Chief Government Whip Nalinda Jayatissa Chief Opposition Whip Gayantha Karunathilaka Secretary General Kushani Anusha Rohanadeera Constitutional Council COPE Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs Cabinet Minister Ananda Wijepala Secretary to the Ministry D. W. R. B. Seneviratne
Judiciary Supreme Court of Sri Lanka Chief Justice (48th) Murdu Fernando Puisne Justices P. Padman Surasena S. Thurairaja Gamini Amarasekera Yasantha Kodagoda A. H. M. D.Nawaz Kumuduni Wickremasinghe A. L. Shiran Gooneratne Janak De Silva Achala Wengappuli Mahinda Samayawardhena Arjuna Obeyesekere K. Priyantha Fernando R. M. S. Rajakaruna Menaka Wijesundara Sampath B. Abeykoon M. S. K. B. Wijeratne Court of Appeal High Court District Court Magistrate's Court Primary Court Labour Tribunal Judicial Service Commission Bar Association Law enforcement Attorney General's Department Attorney General (49th) Parinda Ranasinghe Solicitor General Viraj Dayaratne Ministry of Justice Cabinet Minister Harshana Nanayakkara Secretary to the Ministry Ayesha Jinasena
Elections Election Commission Chairman R. M. A. L. Rathnayake Members M. A. P. C. Perera Ameer Faaiz Anusuya Shanmuganathan Lakshman Dissanayake Elections Presidential 2015 2019 2024 Next Parliamentary 2015 2020 2024 Next Provincial council 2013 2014 (Mar) 2014 (Sep) Local government 2018 2019 2024 Next Referendum 1982 Electoral districts Polling divisions Political parties
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Devolution 13th Amendment Indo-Sri Lanka Accord Provincial Councils Governors Chief Ministers Councillors Local government Municipal Councils Urban Councils Pradeshiya Sabhas Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government Cabinet Minister Chandana Abayarathna Secretary to the Ministry S. Aloka Bandara
Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe Currency Banknotes Economy Ministry of Finance Cabinet Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake Secretary to the Ministry K. M. Mahinda Siriwardana
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The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය, romanized: Śrī Laṅkā Rajaya; Tamil: இலங்கை அரசாங்கம், romanized: Ilaṇkai Aracāṅkam) is a Semi-presidential republic determined by the Sri Lankan Constitution. It administers the island from both its commercial capital of Colombo and the administrative capital of Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte.

Constitution

The Constitution of Sri Lanka has been the constitution of the island nation of Sri Lanka since its original promulgation by the National State Assembly on 7 September 1978. It is Sri Lanka's second republican constitution and its third constitution since the country's independence (as Ceylon) in 1948, after the Donoughmore Constitution, Soulbury Constitution, and Constitution of 1972. As of October 2020, it has been formally amended 21 times.

Executive branch

The President, directly elected for a five-year term, is head of state, head of government, chief executive, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The election occurs under the Sri Lankan form of the contingent vote. Responsible to Parliament for the exercise of duties under the constitution and laws, the president may be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of Parliament with the concurrence of the Supreme Court.

The President appoints and heads a cabinet of ministers responsible to Parliament. The president's deputy is the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, who leads the ruling party in Parliament. The President can dissolve the cabinet and appoint a new one at any time.

Legislative branch

The Parliament has 225 members, elected for a six-year term, 196 members elected in multi-seat constituencies and 29 by proportional representation. The President may summon, suspend, or end a legislative session and dissolve Parliament any time after it has served for one year. Parliament reserves the power to make all laws.

The primary modification is that the party that receives the largest number of valid votes in each constituency gains a unique "bonus seat" (see Hickman, 1999). Since its independence in 1948, Sri Lanka has remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Judicial branch

The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the country. It is set out in the constitution, which defines courts as independent institutions within the traditional framework of checks and balances. The Sri Lankan courts are presided over by professional judges, judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President with the nomination of the Parliamentary Council, others by the Judicial Service Commission.

Sri Lanka has a legal system which is an amalgam of English common law, Roman-Dutch civil law and Customary Law.

Elections

Sri Lanka elects on the national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The Parliament has 225 members, elected for a five-year term, and 196 members elected in multi-seat constituencies through a proportional representation system where each party is allocated a number of seats from the quota for each district according to the proportion of the total vote that the party obtains in the district.

List of Governments in Sri Lanka

• 1st - United National Party - from 1947 to 1951
• 2nd - United National Party - from 1951 to 1956

Notes

1. After the 1978 reforms, the President of Sri Lanka became the head of government instead of the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

References

1. Boxall, Sheryl (2008). DeRouen, Karl; Bellamy, Paul (eds.). International Security and the United States: An Encyclopedia, Volume 2. Westport, Connecticut, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 728. ISBN 978-0-275-99255-2.
2. Radhakrishnan, R. K. (2024-09-22). "Anura Kumara Dissanayake Wins Sri Lanka Presidential Election 2024". Frontline. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
3. "Judicial System of Sri Lanka". Commonwealth Governance. Retrieved 17 November 2013.

External links

General

• Government of Sri Lanka
• The Official Website of the Data and Information Unit of the Presidential Secretariat, Sri Lanka

Law

• Official site of the Judicial Service Commission Secretariat
• Sri Lanka's Legal Information Network

Executive Branch

• Official site of the Presidency Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine
• Official site of the Presidential Secretariat

Legislative Branch

• Official site of the Parliament of Sri Lanka

Judiciary

• Official site of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka
• Official site of the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka

Others

• Official Government News Portal

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Law	Kandyan Constitution Donoughmore Constitution (1931) Soulbury Constitution (1947) Republican Constitution (1972) 1997 Draft Constitution (1997) 2000 Draft Constitution (2000) Constitution Proposed Constitution Acts of the Parliament Kandyan law Thesavalamai Muslim law Roman-Dutch law English law
Political history	Kandyan independence movement (1470s) Crisis of the Sixteenth Century (1505–1594) Wijayaba Kollaya (1521) Sinhalese–Portuguese War (1527–1658) Portuguese conquest of Jaffna (1560–1619) Fall of Kotte (1597) British invasion of Ceylon (1795) Kandyan Wars (1796–1818) American Ceylon Mission (1813) Kandyan Convention (1815) Sri Lankan independence movement (1817–1948) Great Rebellion of 1817–18 (1817–1818) Colebrooke-Cameron Commission (1829) Matale rebellion (1848) Temperance movement (1895) 1915 Ceylonese riots (1915) Ceylon National Congress (1919) Jaffna Youth Congress (1924) Donoughmore Commission (1927) Suriya-Mal Movement (1933–1939) Bracegirdle Incident (1937) Cocos Islands mutiny (1942) Soulbury Commission (1944) Independence Day (1948) Ceylon Citizenship Act (1948) State-sponsored colonisation schemes (1950s–2000s) 1953 Ceylonese Hartal (1953) Nehru-Kotelawala Pact (1954) Sinhala Only Act (1956) 1956 anti-Tamil pogrom (1956) Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact (1957) 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom (1958) Coup d'état attempt (1962) Sirima–Shastri Pact (1964) Alleged coup d'état attempt (1966) Policy of standardisation (1971) 1971 JVP insurrection (1971) Republic Day (1972) Sirima–Gandhi Pact (1974) Vaddukoddai Resolution (1976) 1977 Sri Lankan riots (1977) Burning of Jaffna Public Library (1981) Black July (1983) Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) Indo-Sri Lanka Accord (1987) 1987 anti-Sinhalese riots (1987) 1987–1989 JVP insurrection (1987–1989) Mawanella riots (2001) 2014 anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka (2014) Alleged coup d'état attempt (2015) 2018 anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka (2018) 2018 Sri Lankan constitutional crisis (2018) 2019 anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka (2019) 2022 Sri Lankan protests (2022) 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis (2022)
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