The Colombo Municipal Council is the municipal governing body of

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

, the largest city and financial centre in

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, ...

. It consists of a directly elected executive

Mayor of Colombo The Mayor of Colombo is the elected head of the Colombo Municipal Council. The post was created in 1866 when the Colombo Municipal Council was established by the Legislative Council of Ceylon. The mayor is assisted by the deputy mayor and a Munic ...

, and elected 119 municipal councilors. The council was formed in 1865, it first met in 1866 and derives most of its powers from ''Municipal Council Ordinance No. 29 of 1947''. It is the oldest and the largest local government authority in Sri Lanka which covers a resident

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of over 600,000 (as of 2001). It is one of the largest employers in the country with over 12,000 employees.

Council

Colombo is a

charter city Home rule in the United States relates to the authority of a constituent part of a U.S. state to exercise powers of governance (i.e., whether such powers must be specifically delegated to it by the state—typically by legislative action—or a ...

, with a Mayor Council form of government. Colombo's mayor and the council members are elected through local government elections held once in four years. It has 16 standing committees on various subjects.

Officers

The Colombo Municipal Council under the ''Municipal Council Ordinance'' have several elected and appointed officers. These are: #Mayor #Deputy Mayor #Municipal Magistrate #Municipal Commissioner #Municipal Secretary #Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Engineering services) #Municipal Treasurer #Chief Medical Officer Of Health #Chief Municipal Veterinary Surgeon #Municipal Assessor #Chief Librarian #Charity Commissioner #Chief Fire Officer

Administration

The

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

serves as the head of the council assisted by a

Deputy Mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor and assistant mayor) is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many local governments. Duties and functions Many elected deputy mayors are members of the loca ...

. A Municipal Commissioner heads the staff and administration municipal, which is made up of 16 departments. The Municipal Commissioner is appointed by the minister of local government or which ever minister the subject is vested under. Usually the appointment would be made from an officer seconded from the

Sri Lanka Administrative Service The Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) ( Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා පරිපාලන සේවය; śrī laṁkā paripālana sēvaya, Tamil:ஸ்ரீ இலங்கை நிருவாக சேவை; Sri lanka niruvá ...

. In the absence of the mayor or deputy mayor or following the end of term of the council, the commissioner would serve as the officer implementing the powers and functions of the Colombo municipal council. Municipal Commissioner is entitled to use of Park House, Colombo as an official residence which is a 16 bedroom mansion at Albert Crescent, Colombo 7.

Departments

The Colombo municipal council is made up of 16 departments. These include: * Mayor's Office * Municipal Treasurer’s Department * Municipal Secretary Department * Municipal Engineer’s Department * Municipal Health Department * Municipal Veterinary Department * Curative Department * Indigenous Health Department * Public Library Department (

Colombo Public Library Colombo Public Library is the largest public library in Sri Lanka, located in Colombo 07, Sri Lanka. History The first public library in the country was the United Service Library, which was established in 1813. It was used exclusively by civil ...

) * Public Assistance Department * Legal Department * Sports and Recreation Department * Training and Development Department * Municipal Assessor’s Department * Central Procurement Department * Fire Service Department (Colombo Fire Brigade)

Powers and functions

The municipal council is responsible for: *

Urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

, architectural designs *

Sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...

(

waste Waste are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor Value (economics), economic value. A wast ...

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewerage, sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged fro ...

) *

Health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

and

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

issues *

Emergency service Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety, security, and health by addressing and resolving different emergencies. Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies, while oth ...

s (not

policing The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citizen ...

, which is the responsibility of the central government) *

Social service Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

*Road management

Population

The Colombo Municipal Council covers the Colombo and Thimbirigasyaya Divisional Secretariat Divisions. According to the 2011-12 Census the population living within the boundaries of the CMC was 555,031. Of this number, 318,048 lived in the Colombo DSD (the Northern part of the city) and 236,983 lived in the Thimbirigasyaya DSD (the Southern part).

Political make up

For the past 50 years the city had been dominated by the

United National Party The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...

(UNP), a

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

leaning party, whose business friendly policies resonate with the population of Colombo. The UNP as held majority in the council and post of Mayor since the party was formed in 1947, with two brief exceptions. In 1954, the UNP lost the municipal election to the

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

Lanka Sama Samaja Party The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, often abbreviated as LSSP ( literally: Lanka Equal Society Party, Sinhala: ලංකා සම සමාජ පක්ෂය, Tamil: லங்கா சமசமாஜக் கட்சி), is a major Trotskyist po ...

(LSSP) and Dr

N. M. Perera Nanayakkarapathirage Martin Perera, commonly known as Dr. N. M. Perera ( Sinhala එන්.එම්.පෙරේරා ; 6 June 1904 – 14 August 1979), was one of the leaders of the Sri Lankan Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). He w ...

was elected Mayor. The LSSP won several local government elections that year including nine Village Councils and three Urban Councils, apart from the Colombo Municipal Council. In 2006, the UNP nomination list for the 2006 Municipal elections was rejected, and an Independent Group supported by the UNP won the elections.

Uvais Mohamed Imitiyas Uvais Mohamed Imitiyas was the Mayor of Colombo from 2006 to 2011. Imtiyas was an Auto rickshaw An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many ...

was subsequently appointed Mayor of Colombo. The former Mayoress

Rosy Senanayake Bernadine Rose Senanayake, Unofficial magistrate, JP, UM (née Ramanayake; born 5 January 1958), better known as Rosy Senanayake, is a Sri Lankan politician, beauty pageant titleholder and activist currently serving as Presidential Advisor on ...

, the first female Mayor of Colombo, was elected in 2018 representing the UNP.

National politics

Colombo as the largest city and former capital of Sri Lanka, has been at the center of Sri Lankan politics. The Colombo municipal council has been an entry route for many politicians. Four national leaders, which includes two presidents,

J. R. Jayewardene Junius Richard Jayewardene (; ; 17 September 1906 – 1 November 1996), commonly referred to by his initials JR, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, public official and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and as the secon ...

and

Ranasinghe Premadasa Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa ( ''Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa''; ''Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā''; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was a Sri Lankan politician and statesman who served as the third President of Sri Lanka from 2 January 1989 unt ...

; one prime minister

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (8 January 1899 – 26 September 1959), also known as "The Silver Bell of Asia" (ආසියාවේ රිදී සීනුව), was a Sri Lankan statesman who served as the fourth Prime Minister of ...

, and an independence activist

Vivienne Goonewardene Violet Vivienne Goonewardene (, ; 18 September 19163 October 1996), commonly known as "Vivi", was a Sri Lankan anti-colonial activist and prominent politician, serving as one of the world's first female ministers. A key figure in both the Indian ...

started their political career by contesting for the Colombo municipal council.

Representation

The Colombo Municipal Council Municipal Council is divided into 47 wards and is represented by 117 councillors, elected using an

open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a Political party, party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, in which party lists ...

proportional representation system Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (political parties) among voters. The aim ...

2025 Local government election

Results of the local government election held on 6 May 2025.

2018 Local government election

Results of the local government election held on 10 February 2018.

2011 Local government election