[8][9] In a surprise result, the newly formed Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, led by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, came first, winning 40% of the votes and securing the most number of seats and local authorities.

22 of 2012, changing the electoral system for electing local authority members from open list proportional representation (PR) to a mixed electoral system whereby 70% of members would be elected using first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) and the remaining 30% through closed list PR.

[44] After much delay the committee's final report was handed over to Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Faiszer Musthapha on 19 June 2015.

[53][54][55] Small parties and those representing ethnic minorities complained that the new mixed electoral system put them at a disadvantage and as a result the government agreed to change the ratio between FPTP and PR.

[59][60][61] On 15 November 2017 six voters filed a petition with the Court of Appeal challenging the legality of the gazette on demarcation of wards issued in February 2017, affecting 208 local authorities.

[62][63] On 22 November 2017 the Court of Appeal suspended the implementation of the gazette until 4 December 2017, preventing elections from being called to the 208 local authorities.

[72] Opinion poll conducted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives revealed Fifty-six percent of respondents said the coalition government should not continue.

[73] Nominations to 93 local authorities (7 MC, 18 UC, 68 DC) without any legal issues took place between 11 and 14 December 2017.

[85] On 30 January 2018 the Supreme Court issued an injunction preventing election in Elpitiya DC following a petition by the Democratic United National Front against the rejection of their nomination list.

The other 40 percent of seats were elected based on the proportion of votes received by each contesting political party or independent group.

Finally, to account for seats already won through the FPTP system, the district returning officer takes the total number of seats a political party or independent group gained (Y) and subtracts the total number won through FPTP.

The result is the number of seats a political party or group is entitled to under the proportional representation system.

[88] The main constituent party of the United People's Freedom Alliance, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, underwent a split not long before the election, as SLFP MPs loyal to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa broke away from the SLFP to create a political front of their own.

The elections resulted in parties winning an absolute majority of seats in only 141 of the 340 local authorities - Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) in 126 LA's, United National Front (UNF) in five, independents in two, National Congress in two, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in two, United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in two, Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) in one and Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) in one.