President Mahinda Rajapaksa won the November 2005 presidential poll by a narrow margin. Mr. Rajapakse, a Buddhist lawyer, enjoyed the backing of Marxist and Buddhist parties in the government. His main rival was the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. The president is both the chief of state and head of government. The largely ceremonial title of prime minister is held bij Ratnasiri Wickremanayake. The last presidential elections were held in November 2005, when the president was elected for a six-year term.  Sri Lanka has a unicameral Parliament, consisting of 225 seats. The members are elected by popular vote on the basis of an open-list, proportional representation system by electoral district to serve six-year terms. The next elections are to be held in 2010.

Sri Lanka for many years struggled with internal battles against the ‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elan (LTTE)’, striving for autonomy of the Tamils in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. In May 2009 the LTTE was militarily defeated.