Dullas Alahapperuma | |
---|---|
ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම டல்லாஸ் அழகப்பெரும | |
Leader of the Freedom People's Congress | |
Assumed office 2 September 2022 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Minister of Mass Media | |
In office 16 August 2021 –3 April 2022 | |
President | Gotabaya Rajapaksa |
Prime Minister | Mahinda Rajapaksa |
Preceded by | Keheliya Rambukwella |
Succeeded by | Nalaka Godahewa |
Minister of Power and Energy | |
In office 12 August 2020 –16 August 2021 | |
President | Gotabaya Rajapaksa |
Prime Minister | Mahinda Rajapaksa |
Preceded by | Mahinda Amaraweera |
Succeeded by | Gamini Lokuge |
Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs | |
In office 22 November 2019 –12 August 2020 | |
President | Gotabaya Rajapaksa |
Prime Minister | Mahinda Rajapaksa |
Preceded by | Harin Fernando |
Succeeded by | Namal Rajapaksa |
Member of Parliament for Matara District | |
Assumed office 2015 | |
In office 1994–2001 | |
Member of Parliament for National List | |
In office 2005–2015 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Dullas Daham Kumara Alahapperuma 14 May 1959 Dikwella,Matara,Ceylon |
Nationality | Sri Lankan |
Political party | Freedom People's Congress (since 2022) |
Other political affiliations | Sri Lanka Freedom Party (1994–2019) Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (2019–2022) |
Spouse | Pradeepa Dharmadasa |
Children | Mahima Induwara Kaushika Nalanda |
Alma mater | St. Servatius' College Ananda College |
Occupation | Politician |
Profession | Journalist |
Dullas Daham Kumara Alahapperuma (born May 14,1959) is a Sri Lankan politician and founder and current leader of the Freedom People's Congress. Alahapperuma is also a former Cabinet Minister of Information and Mass Media and a current Member of Parliament from the Matara District.
Alahapperuma was born on 14 May 1959 in Dikwella,Matara to Carolis Alahapperuma and Aslin Alahapperuma,who were principals of local schools. [1] Alahapperuma received his primary and secondary education at St. Servatius' College and Ananda College. He studied Political Science at the University of Iowa,for one and half years,but did not complete the political science degree [2]
Alahapperuma started his career as a journalist,he worked at Lakmina before joining Divaina as an editor. [3] He entered Parliament for the first time in 1994 after topping the Matara preferential vote as a People's Alliance candidate with 76,678 votes. [4]
He got re-elected in 2000 and served in the short tenure of the 11th Parliament. He was also appointed as Deputy Minister of Samurdhi,Rural Development,Parliamentary Affairs &Up-country Development. He surprisingly decided not to contest in the 2001 General Election. He said he was 'too white' to be in the parliament referring to corruption. [5]
He re-entered 13th Parliament as a UPFA national list MP on 19 December 2005 to the vacant seat following the assassination of then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. He was appointed as the Minister of Transport in 2007.
He re-entered Parliament in 2010 as a national list MP representing UPFA following the 2010 General Election and was subsequently appointed as Minister of Youth Affairs. He voted in favour of the Eighteenth Amendment which gave the Executive President a wide range of powers including removing the term limit for re-election. In 2015,he voted in favour of the Nineteenth Amendment under President Sirisena which curtailed Presidential powers.
He contested the 2015 General Election as a UPFA candidate from Matara district and received 105,406 votes to enter Parliament. In August 2016,he resigned from the Matara District SLFP leadership post. [6] In 2019,He was appointed as the Minister of Sports along with two other portfolios of Ministries of Education and Youth Affairs. [7]
Alahapperuma contested the 2020 General Election as a SLPP candidate from the Matara district and received 103,534 votes to enter Parliament. He voted in favour of Twentieth Amendment which repealed 19th Amendment and restored more powers to the Executive President. In August 2020,Alahapperuma was appointed Minister of Power. [8] In the August 2021 Cabinet reshuffle,he was appointed Minister of Mass Media. [9] He resigned from his cabinet portfolio in April 2022 as the 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis deepened amid civil protests. [10]
In July 2022,following the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,Alahapperuma announced that he would run for president in the upcoming presidential election to elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa's successor. [11] Alahapperuma was backed by Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa and SLPP Chairman and MP Professor G. L. Peiris. [12] Alahapperuma lost the election to acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe.
On 31 August,2022,Dullas Alahapperuma and 13 others left the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party and crossed over to the opposition as an independent MP. [13] Two days later,Alahapperuma's faction launched a new political party,the Freedom People's Congress. The faction is expected to contest in the upcoming local government elections as part of the Freedom People's Alliance,a political alliance also including the SLFP and the Supreme Lanka Coalition. [14]
He is married to popular singer Pradeepa Dharmadasa,daughter of P.K and Hema Dharmadasa of Galle,and has two children. [1]
Ranil Wickremesinghe is a Sri Lankan politician who is the 8th and current president of Sri Lanka. He also holds several ministerial positions,including the Minister of Finance,Minister of Defence,Minister of Technology and Minister of Women,Child Affairs and Social Empowerment.
The United National Party,often abbreviated as UNP,is a centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party,or as part of its governing coalition,for 38 of the country's 74 years of independence,including the periods 1947–1956,1965–1970,1977–1994,2001–2004 and 2015–2019. The party also controlled the executive presidency from its formation in 1978 until 1994.
Mahinda Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015;the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005,2018,and 2019 to 2022;the Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2004 and 2018 to 2019,and the Minister of Finance from 2005 to 2015 and 2019 to 2021. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kurunegala since 2015.
The United People's Freedom Alliance was a political alliance in Sri Lanka founded by former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2004 and dissolved by former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena in 2019.
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is one of the major and most well known political parties in Sri Lanka. It was founded by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in 1951 and,since then,has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena. It first came to power in 1956 and since then has been the predominant party in government on a number of occasions. The party is generally considered as having a democratic socialist or progressive economic agenda and is often associated with nationalist Sinhalese parties. The party follows a Non-Aligned foreign policy but always had close ties to socialist nations.
Mangala Pinsiri Samaraweera was a Sri Lankan politician. He was the first openly gay politician from Sri Lanka. He was the Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2019,and the Minister of Foreign Affairs,for two terms from 2005 to 2007 and 2015 to 2017. He created a stir in Sri Lankan politics when he was sacked as a minister by President Mahinda Rajapakse in 2007,after which he formed a new political party called the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Mahajana) Wing,which later merged with the United National Party in 2010.
Nambukara Helambage Rajitha Harischandra Senaratne is a Sri Lankan dentist,politician,member of parliament and former cabinet minister. He is currently a member of parliament representing Kalutara district
Maithripala Yapa Sirisena is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the seventh President of Sri Lanka from 9 January 2015 to 18 November 2019. Sirisena is Sri Lanka's first president from the North Central Province of the country and does not belong to the traditional Sri Lankan political elite. He is currently a member of parliament from Polonnaruwa.
Basil Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan-American politician. He is a former Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for the national list.
Ramesh Pathirana is a Sri Lankan politician,a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and is serving as the current Minister of Plantation Industries and Minister of Industries. He belongs to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. He was educated at Richmond College,Galle and University of Peradeniya. He is a physician by profession and is the son of former Education and Higher Education minister Richard Pathirana.
The 15th Parliament of Sri Lanka was the meeting of the Parliament of Sri Lanka with its membership determined by the results of the 2015 parliamentary election,held on 17 August 2015. The parliament met for the first time on 1 September 2015 and was dissolved on 3 March 2020. According to the Constitution of Sri Lanka,the maximum legislative term of the parliament is 5 years from the first meeting.
The Sri Lanka People's Front,commonly known by its Sinhalese name Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP),is a political party in Sri Lanka. Previously a minor political party known as the Sri Lanka National Front (SLNF) and Our Sri Lanka Freedom Front (OSLFF),it was relaunched in 2016 as the SLPP and became the home for members of the United People's Freedom Alliance loyal to its former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 16 November 2019. The incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena's term of office would have ended on 9 January 2020. This was the first presidential election in Sri Lanka where no sitting president,prime minister or opposition leader ran for president. Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the election in a landslide victory,defeating his main opponent Sajith Premadasa.
The 16th Parliament of Sri Lanka is the current Parliament of Sri Lanka,with the membership determined by the results of the 2020 parliamentary election held on 5 August 2020. According to the Constitution of Sri Lanka the maximum legislative term of the parliament is 5 years from the first meeting.
Mohamed Uvais Mohamed Ali Sabry,PC,MP,,also known as Ali Sabry,is a Sri Lankan lawyer and politician. He is the Current Minister of External Affairs serving since 22 July 2022. He previously served as the Minister of Finance until 9 May 2022. He was a Member of Parliament,appointed from the national list of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. He also served as the Minister of Justice until 9 May 2022. He served as the defense counsel of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,chief legal adviser and President of the Muslim Federation of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.
An indirect presidential election was held in the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 20 July 2022 following the resignation of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa on 14 July. The president of Sri Lanka was elected by the Parliament of Sri Lanka in a secret ballot to decide who would complete the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa's term. Candidates were nominated in the Parliament on 19 July in advance of the election the following day.
The 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis was a political crisis in Sri Lanka due to the power struggle between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the people of Sri Lanka. It was fueled by the anti-government protests and demonstrations by the public due to the economic crisis in the country. The anti-government sentiment across various parts of Sri Lanka has triggered a state of political instability that is unprecedented in the nation's history.
Arukathu Patabendige Jagath Pushpakumara,commonly known as Jagath Pushpakumara,is a Sri Lankan politician and Member of Parliament.
The Uttara Lanka Sabhagaya or Supreme Lanka Coalition is a political alliance in Sri Lanka formed in 2022. The coalition is made up of seven Sri Lankan leftist and nationalist parties who were formerly part of the SLPP-led Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance,before defecting to the opposition amidst the 2022 economic crisis and political crisis. The first conference of the alliance was held on 4 September,2022. Leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF) and former cabinet minister Wimal Weerawansa is the chairman of the Supreme Lanka Coalition. The alliance has 15 seats in the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
The Freedom People's Alliance is a political alliance in Sri Lanka founded in 2023 to contest in the upcoming local elections. The alliance consists of 12 political parties,including the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SFLP),the Uttara Lanka Sabhagaya and the Freedom People's Congress.