Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 5 December 2001, just a little over a year after the previous elections in October 2000.

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Quick Facts All 225 seats in the Parliament of Sri Lanka 113 seats were needed for a majority, Turnout ...

2001 Sri Lankan parliamentary election

← 2000 5 December 2001 2004 →
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All 225 seats in the Parliament of Sri Lanka 113 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	76.03%
First party Second party   Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe Chandrika Kumaratunga Party UNF PA Leader since 1994 1994 Leader's seat Colombo District n/a Last election 40.22%, 89 seats 45.11%, 107 seats Seats won 109 77 Seat change 20 30 Popular vote 4,086,026 3,330,815 Percentage 45.62% 37.19% Swing 5.40% 7.92%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe Rajavarothiam Sampanthan Party JVP TNA Leader since 1990 2001 Leader's seat n/a Trincomalee District Last election 6.00%, 10 seats new alliance Seats won 16 15 Seat change 6 - Popular vote 815,353 348,164 Percentage 9.10% 3.89% Swing 3.10% -
Winners of polling divisions. UNF in green and PA in blue.
Prime Minister before election Ratnasiri Wickremanayake People's Alliance Prime Minister-designate Ranil Wickremesinghe United National Front

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The People's Alliance (PA) government faced a blow when most of the SLMC MPs left the coalition. President Chandrika Kumaratunga tried to recruit the JVP to replace it, but this angered several PA MPs, thirteen of which defected to the opposition. A no-confidence motion was prepared; to forestall this, Kumaratunga called the election.

More than 1,300 incidents of election violence were reported during the campaign. . Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was nearly killed by a suicide bomber. Overall, 60 people were killed in election-related violence, including 14 on polling day.

• Democratic People's Liberation Front (DFLP)
• Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP)
• People's Alliance (Bahejana Nidasa Pakhsaya, BNP), which consisted of:
  • Communist Party of Sri Lanka
  • Democratic United National Front
  • Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Sri Lanka Equal Society Party, LSSP)
  • Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Sri Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya, SLNP)
  • Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya (Sri Lanka People's Party, SLMP)
• Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front, JVP)
• Sri Lanka Muslim Congress
• Tamil United Liberation Front (Tamil Vimuktasi Peramuna, TVP)
• United National Front, which consisted of:
  • United National Party (Eksath Jathika Pakshaya, UNP)
  • Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC)

The ruling People's Alliance lost the election, which saw the United National Front win the legislative power. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe became the new prime minister.

Having the President and Prime Minister belong to two different parties proved to be unstable, and Parliament was dissolved again in 2004, leading to yet another general election.