How does the second preference count work in a Sri Lankan presidential election?

If no candidate wins more than half of all valid votes on the first count, every candidate except the top two is eliminated. Each eliminated ballot is re-examined: if it marked a 2nd (or, failing that, 3rd) preference for one of the two survivors, one vote is added to that survivor. The survivor with the higher final total is elected.

What happens if no candidate gets 50% in the Sri Lankan presidential election?

A second count is triggered. The two highest-polling candidates stay in the race and all others drop out. The transferred second and third preferences from the eliminated ballots decide the winner. This happened for the first time ever in September 2024.

How many preferences can you mark on a Sri Lankan presidential ballot?

Up to three. Under Article 94 of the Constitution a voter may mark a first, second and third preference for different candidates. Only the first preference is used unless a second count is needed, and each ballot can ever add at most one vote to at most one of the two surviving candidates.

Which candidates are eliminated before the second count?

Everyone except the two candidates with the most first-preference votes. If there are 38 candidates and none clears 50%, 36 are eliminated at once and only the top two continue to the second count. There is no round-by-round elimination as in some other ranked systems.

Why was a second count needed in the 2024 Sri Lankan presidential election?

Because no candidate reached more than half the valid votes on the first count. Anura Kumara Dissanayake led with 42.31% and Sajith Premadasa had 32.76% — both under 50%. The Election Commission then ran the country's first-ever second count, which Dissanayake won with 5,740,179 votes to 4,530,902.

Can this tool predict how preferences will transfer?

No. Transfers depend on how voters actually marked their 2nd and 3rd preferences, which can't be worked out from first-count totals. You enter the published transfer figures yourself; the tool does the arithmetic and declares the winner. It never guesses which way preferences flow.

What share of eliminated votes usually transfers?

Only a minority. Many voters mark just a first preference, so their ballots are exhausted and transfer nothing. In 2024 the two survivors gained about 273,000 transfers between them out of roughly 3.3 million eliminated votes — under 10% carried a usable preference for either of the top two.

Is this the same as the parliamentary seat calculation?

No. Parliamentary seats use proportional representation with a 5% cut-off, a bonus seat and district quotas — a completely different method handled by our Sri Lanka Parliamentary Election Seat Calculator. The presidential contingent vote here is a single nationwide count with a majority test and one transfer round.

Sri Lanka · Elections

Sri Lanka Presidential Election Preference (Second Count) Calculator

Find out who wins a Sri Lankan presidential election. Enter the first-count votes to see whether anyone clears 50%, and — if not — add the transferred second preferences to the top two to settle the second count. Reproduces the 2024 result to the vote.

By Induwara Ashinsana— Executive Director, Ryzera TechnologiesUpdated Jul 15, 2026

Run a preference count

Matches 2024 EC result

Load

First-preference votes

Candidate 1 name

Votes

Candidate 2 name

Votes

Candidate 3 name

Votes

Candidate 4 name

Votes

Candidate 5 name

Votes

No majority — a second count is required

The leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake (NPP), has only 42.31% — not more than half of 13,319,616 valid votes. The top two candidates survive; everyone else is eliminated and their 2nd/3rd preferences are transferred below.

First count

#	Candidate	Votes	Share	Status
1	Anura Kumara Dissanayake (NPP)	5,634,915	42.31%	Survives
2	Sajith Premadasa (SJB)	4,363,035	32.76%	Survives
3	Ranil Wickremesinghe (Independent)	2,299,767	17.27%	Eliminated
4	Other 34 candidates (combined)	679,118	5.1%	Eliminated
5	Namal Rajapaksa (SLPP)	342,781	2.57%	Eliminated
Total valid votes		13,319,616	100%

Second count — transferred preferences

Transfers to Anura Kumara Dissanayake (NPP)

Transfers to Sajith Premadasa (SJB)

Survivor	First count	+ Transfers	Final	Final %
Anura Kumara Dissanayake (NPP)	5,634,915	+105,264	5,740,179	55.89%
Sajith Premadasa (SJB)	4,363,035	+167,867	4,530,902	44.11%

Elected on the second count

Anura Kumara Dissanayake (NPP) wins with 5,740,179 votes (55.89%), a margin of 1,209,277 over Sajith Premadasa (SJB).

Cross-checked: the winner by final vote total and by final vote share agree.

Rules per the Constitution of Sri Lanka, Article 94 and the Presidential Elections Act No. 15 of 1981 (§57). Validated against the Election Commission's official 2024 second-count result. Sources are listed below the calculator.

How it works

Sri Lanka elects its President by a contingent vote — a ranked system set out in Article 94 of the Constitution and the Presidential Elections Act No. 15 of 1981. On the ballot a voter may mark up to three preferences for different candidates. The count then runs in at most two stages.

Total the valid votes.Add every candidate's first-preference votes to get V. Each candidate's percentage is their votes ÷ V.
First-count majority test. Take the leading candidate. If their first-preference votes are strictly more than one-half of V (that is, votes > V / 2), they are elected immediately and no further counting happens. Exactly half is not enough — the law requires more than one-half.
Elimination. If no one crosses that line, every candidate except the two highest is eliminated in a single step. Call the survivors A (higher first count) and B.
Second count.Each eliminated candidate's ballots are re-examined. If a ballot's 2nd preference is for A or B, one vote is added to that candidate. If the 2nd preference is for another eliminated candidate but the 3rd preference is for A or B, the 3rd preference is used instead. Every transferred ballot adds at most one vote to at most one survivor; ballots with no usable preference are exhausted and transfer nothing.
Final result. A_final = A_first + transfers_to_A and likewise for B. The higher final total is elected. Final percentages are reported against A_final + B_final — the votes effective at the final count, not the original V.

Transfers cannot be derived from first-count totals — they depend on how each eliminated ballot was actually marked — so this tool takes them as inputs from the published second-count data rather than guessing. To prove the arithmetic, the engine reproduces the Election Commission's official 2024 second count exactly: Anura Kumara Dissanayake's 5,634,915 first-preference votes plus 105,264 transfers gives 5,740,179, and Sajith Premadasa's 4,363,035 plus 167,867 gives 4,530,902 — the declared final figures, to the vote.

Worked examples

Elected on the first count

No second count needed

Valid votes V = 5,225,000 + 3,000,000 + 1,775,000 = 10,000,000
Leader A = 5,225,000; one-half line = V / 2 = 5,000,000
5,225,000 > 5,000,000 → majority reached
A elected on the first count with 5,225,000 / 10,000,000 = 52.25%
Transfers are ignored — counting stops at the majority.

Second count required (2024-shape)

Four candidates, no first-count majority

Valid votes V = 5,700,000 + 4,500,000 + 2,300,000 + 500,000 = 13,000,000
Leader A = 5,700,000 → 43.85% ≤ 50% → no majority
Survivors: A and B (4,500,000). Eliminated C, D → 2,800,000 votes
Transfers: tA = 300,000, tB = 400,000 (only 700,000 carried a usable preference)
A_final = 5,700,000 + 300,000 = 6,000,000
B_final = 4,500,000 + 400,000 = 4,900,000
Final %: A = 6,000,000 / 10,900,000 = 55.05% → A elected by 1,100,000

Boundary: exactly one-half is not enough

Edge case — strict majority rule

Two candidates: 5,000,000 and 5,000,000; V = 10,000,000
One-half line = V / 2 = 5,000,000
Leader has 5,000,000, which is NOT more than 5,000,000
No majority → both survive → a second count is required
The law needs more than half, so a bare tie at 50% never wins outright.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & references

The rules and the 2024 validation figures on this page were last cross-checked against the Election Commission's published results on 2026-07-15. This page is reviewed after each presidential election and any amendment to the Presidential Elections Act.

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