2010 Sri Lankan presidential election
26 January 2010
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 74.50% ( 0.77pp) | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Results by polling division Mahinda Rajapaksa Sarath Fonseka | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 26 January 2010. They were the sixth presidential elections held in the country's history, and the first to be held following the conclusion of the Sri Lankan civil war. Incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa of the governing United People's Freedom Alliance was re-elected with 57.88% of the vote, defeating his main opponent Sarath Fonseka of the New Democratic Front, an opposition coalition backed by the United National Party. Fonseka received 40.15% of the vote, carrying the formerly LTTE-occupied Northern and Eastern Provinces. The remaining twenty candidates each garnered less than 0.5% of the popular vote.
The elections were announced on 23 November 2009 when president Rajapaksa decided to seek a fresh mandate prior to the expiration of his term in 2011. Nominations were accepted on 17 December 2009.