Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Mahinda Maithripala SIRISENA
• Head of Government: President Mahinda Maithripala SIRISENA*
• Assembly: Sri Lanka has a unicameral Parliament with 225 seats.

* Ranil WICKREMESINGHE holds the largely ceremonial title of Prime Minister. SIRISENA serves as both chief of state and head of government.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected through a contingent vote system to serve a 6-year term.  Under the contingent vote system, voters may rank up to three candidates. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round of counting, ballots whose first rankings are eliminated candidates are redistributed to the next-ranked candidates on those ballots. The winner is the candidate with the most votes after this second round of counting.
• In the Parliament 225 members are elected by open list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies to serve 6-year terms.
  • Parties must clear a threshold of one-eighth of votes to win seats in the respective constituency. Each voter may cast three preference votes. There are 22 multi-member constituencies containing 196 seats and one nationwide constituency with 29 seats.