Voter Turnout Across Recent Elections (2024-2025)
Sri Lanka’s long-awaited Local Government (LG) Election was held on 06th May 2025. Coming after two major national elections, Presidential and General elections in 2024, this is the first local-level election. With 61% voter turnout, the results help us to understand how public opinion is evolving. In this article, we look at the overall numbers and how major parties performed across the country.
Out of all registered electors in Sri Lanka, only 10.1m voted, amounting to 61% of the eligible voters. This marks a notable drop compared to the higher turnout seen in Presidential and General elections 2024. Here is how voter turnout has changed across three elections.
According to these figures, the Presidential Election has the highest turnout in nearly every district. The highest turnout was recorded in Monaragala at 86%. LG Elections show a clear drop compared to the Presidential Election. Many areas show a noticeable decline of 10-20 percentage points in many districts such as Colombo (77% to 57%), Kandy (80% to 62%), Gampaha (79% to 59%).
Parliamentary election turnout falls between the two, ranging from 60% to 71%. The turnout of this election is lower than the Presidential Election’s turnout, but better than LG Election’s turnout in most regions.
Biggest drop zones between three elections are as follows.
- Jaffna 83%→60%→63%
- Kurunegala 81%→69%→62%
- Colombo 77%→69%→57%
However, Eastern and Northern provinces show relatively consistent turnout. Mannar stands out for maintaining high engagement across all elections (74%, 73%, 76%).
