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Turnout | 81.06% | ||||||||||||||||
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![]() Winners of polling divisions. Jayewardene in green and Kobbekaduwa in blue. | |||||||||||||||||
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Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka for the first time on 20 October 1982. Incumbent president J. R. Jayewardene of the governing United National Party was elected, receiving 53% of all votes cast.[1][2]
Nominations were accepted on 17 September 1982 and electoral participation was 81.06%. The election was described as a fight between capitalism and socialism: Hector Kobbekaduwa, who advocated to carry on the policies of the previous SLFP-led regime of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was expected to undo most of the open market and capitalist reforms brought in by J. R. Jayewardene.[3]
Although the SLFP lost, they managed to win a significant number of votes in Tamil-speaking areas in the north.[4]
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