The chief of state and head of government of Sri Lanka is a president, who is elected directly to a term of six years. The president appoints the prime minister and members of the cabinet, and may dismiss parliament at will.

According to the 1978 Sri Lanka constitution, the unicameral parliament is the "legislative power of the people." The 225 members of parliament are elected directly by a system of proportional representation.

The major political parties in Sri Lanka are the People’s Alliance, a leftist coalition group, and the United National Party (UNP), a democratic socialist party. Other parties include the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and several Tamil separatist groups.

Sri Lanka is divided into 8 provinces and 25 administrative districts. Each district is presided over by an appointed district minister. Other local government units include 12 municipal councils and 39 urban councils.

The Sri Lankan judiciary consists of a Supreme Court, the court of appeal, the High Court, district courts, magistrates’ courts, and primary courts. The chief justice of the supreme court and two subordinate justices appointed by the president make up the Judicial Service Commission, which has appellate and review powers in criminal cases and exclusive powers in the most serious criminal offenses.

In mid-1990s the armed forces in Sri Lanka were made up of an army of 105,000 people, a navy of 10,300, and an air force of 10,700.

In the early 1990s Sri Lanka had about 3345 physicians and 48,061 hospital beds. In 1995 the average life expectancy at birth was 75 years for women and 70 years for men. The infant mortality rate declined from 63 deaths per 1000 live births in the mid-1960s to 16 in 1995.