Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 2 April 2004. The ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was defeated, winning only eighty two seats in the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament. The opposition United People's Freedom Alliance won 105 seats. While this was eight seats short of an absolute majority, the Alliance was able to form a government.
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna is a leftist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was formerly a revolutionary movement and was involved in two armed uprisings against the government of Sri Lanka: once in 1971 (SLFP), and another in 1987–1989 (UNP). The motive for both uprisings was to establish a socialist state. Since then the JVP has entered mainstream democratic politics and has updated its ideology, abandoning some of its original Marxist policies such as the abolition of private property. The JVP has been led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake since 2014.
Patabendi Don Jinadasa Nandasiri Wijeweera, better known as Rohana Wijeweera, was a Sri Lankan Marxist–Leninist political activist, revolutionary, and founder of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Wijeweera led the party in two unsuccessful insurrections in Sri Lanka, in 1971 and 1987 until his assassination.
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 1971 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurrection was the first of two unsuccessful armed revolts conducted by the communist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) against the socialist United Front Government of Sri Lanka under Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The revolt began on 5 April 1971 and lasted until June of that year. The insurgents held towns and rural areas for several weeks, until the regions were recaptured by the armed forces, following strong support from friendly nations that sent men and material. Although this first attempt to seize power was quickly crushed by force, in 1987 the JVP launched a low-intensity insurgency in the island's southern, central and western regions that lasted several years.
The 1987–1989 JVP insurrection, also known as the 1988–1989 revolt or the JVP troubles, was an armed revolt in Sri Lanka, led by the Marxist–Leninist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, against the Government of Sri Lanka. The insurrection, like the previous one in 1971, was unsuccessful. The main phase of the insurrection was a low-intensity conflict that lasted from April 1987 to December 1989. The insurgents led by the JVP resorted to subversion, assassinations, raids, and attacks on military and civilian targets while the Sri Lankan government reacted through counter-insurgency operations to suppress the revolt.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 16 August 1994. They marked the decisive end of seventeen years of United National Party rule and a revival of Sri Lankan democracy.
Weerasangilige Wimal Weerawansa is a Sri Lankan politician, Member of Parliament and current leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF). Weerawansa has served many cabinet positions, including Minister of Industries from 2020 to 2022, Minister of Small and Medium Business and Enterprise Development, Industries and Supply Chain Management from 2019 to 2020, Minister of Housing and Social Welfare in 2018 and the Minister of Construction and Housing from 2010 to 2015.
Sellapperumage Saman Piyasiri Fernando, was the military wing leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna during the 1987-89 insurrection in Sri Lanka, the JVP's military wing also known as Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya (DJV). His position in the JVP as the military commander was organizationally higher than the position of Rohana Wijeweera, the founder of the JVP.
Vikramabahu Karunaratne was a Sri Lankan scientist and politician. He was a candidate in the 2010 Sri Lankan presidential election.
Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya was a militant organisation in Sri Lanka. It was widely considered to be the military branch of the Marxist–Leninist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and had been designated as a terrorist organisation by the Sri Lankan government.
Don Upatissa Gamanayake, also known by his alias Dias Mudalali, was a Sri Lankan politician and the deputy leader of the Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) during the 1987–1989 insurrection. Not a prominent figure during the JVP's 1971 insurrection, Gamanayake emerged as a leader only after the releasing of the JVP detainees in 1977. He moved up rapidly in the party hierarchy during the JVP's 1977–1983 democratic phase and became the second in command after the founder and the leader, Rohana Wijeweera. He unsuccessfully contested the 1983 Anamaduwa by-election under JVP. Gamanayake was captured and killed by the government forces in November 1989.
The 1989 Temple of the Tooth attack was an attack on the Temple of the Tooth Relic, located in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The shrine, which is considered sacred to the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha and is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site. It was attacked on 8 February 1989, allegedly by the armed cadres affiliated to Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a Marxist–Leninist political party in Sri Lanka.
Amarasinghe Kankanamlage Somawansa, commonly as Somawansha Amarasinghe, was a Sri Lankan politician, and the 4th leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, after Rohana Wijeweera, Saman Piyasiri Fernando and Lalith Wijerathna and served as its leader for 23 years until February 2, 2014. He is often described as a strategic leader who socialized the ideological struggle of the JVP into socialism through the nationalist struggle to save the country from Tamil separatist terrorism.
Terrorism in Sri Lanka has been a highly destructive phenomenon during the 20th and 21st centuries, especially so during the periods of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) and the first (1971) and second JVP insurrections (1987–1989). A common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government for political, religious, or ideological goals. Sri Lanka is a country that has experienced some of the worst known acts of modern terrorism, such as suicide bombings, massacres of civilians and assassination of political and social leaders. Terrorism has posed a significant threat to the society, economy and development of the country. The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1978 is the legislation that provides the powers to law enforcement officers to deal with issues related to terrorism in Sri Lanka. It was first enacted as a temporary law in 1979 under the presidency of J. R. Jayewardene, and later made permanent in 1982.
The Frontline Socialist Party is a communist party in Sri Lanka. It was launched on 9 April 2012 by dissident members of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.
Ginnen Upan Seethala is a 2019 Sinhala biographical film about Sri Lankan Marxist revolutionary Rohana Wijeweera directed by Anuruddha Jayasinghe and produced by Chamathka Peiris for Cinepro Lanka International. The film stars Kamal Addaraarachchi and Sulochana Weerasinghe in lead roles along with Jagath Manuwarna and Sujeewa Priyalal in supporting roles. Music composed by Nadeeka Guruge. It is the 1321st Sri Lankan film in the Sinhala cinema.
Wijayamuni Devage Athula Nimalasiri Jayasinghe was a Sri Lankan revolutionary and politician. A JVP leader of the 1971 JVP insurrection, Jayasinghe was later elected to the Sri Lankan Parliament and served as a Deputy Minister of Power and Energy.
Communism in Sri Lanka dates back to 1935, when the Lanka Sama Samaja Party was founded by Trotskyists who campaigned for freedom and independence of Sri Lanka which was then a colony of the British Empire and known as Ceylon.
Mestreet Tilvin Silva is a Sri Lankan Marxist politician politician who is the General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and NPP founding member. Silva has played a significant role in shaping the JVP's policies and strategies, particularly focusing on social justice, anti-corruption, and economic reforms. Silva has been described as one the closet allies of the president Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
