Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

a Member of Parliament (MP), is the title given to any one of the 225 individuals elected or appointed to serve in the

Parliament of Sri Lanka The Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ''Śrī Laṇkā Pārlimentuvā'', Tamil: இலங்கை நாடாளுமன்றம் '' ...

Electoral system

Of the 225 members, 196 are elected from 22 electoral districts, which are multi-member. The remaining 29 MPs are elected from National Lists allocated to the

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

(and

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

groups) in proportion to their share of the national vote.

Elections

All MP positions become simultaneously vacant for

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

s held on a five-year cycle. If a vacancy arises at another time, due to death or resignation, then an electoral district vacancy may be filled by the second highest scoring candidate in the last election from that electoral district.

Eligibility

Any Sri Lankan citizen may be elected to parliament unless disqualified to do so under the Article 90 of the Constitution, which includes any individual who is; * President of Sri Lanka, * A public officer, judicial officer or officer of a public corporation, * A member of the Regular Force of the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

; with the exception of holders of the rank of

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

, * A

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

or a public officer exercising police function, * Declared as an undischarged

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

insolvent In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet in ...

in terms of the applicable law, * Nominated as a candidate for more than one electoral district or as a candidate for more than one

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

or group in the same district, * A citizen of any foreign country, * Adjudged guilty by a competent

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

or by a Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry.

Title

An MP is known as The Honourable (The Hon. or Hon.) ''Name'' MP or simply as the ''Name'' MP, during their term in office. For instance, Eran Wickramaratne is generally known to be entitled as the Hon. Eran Wickramaratne MP, and can be also referred to as just Eran Wickramaratne MP. By tradition, former MPs continued to use the

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some context ...

The Hon. or Hon..

Salaries and benefits

An average MP would earn more than Rs 270,000 including salary and other benefits, in-addition of attendance allowances.Professionals, MPs urge Govt. to revise PAYE rates
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References

External links

* {{Parliament of Sri Lanka