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.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 5 December 2001, just a little over a year after the previous elections in October 2000.
Nanayakkarapathirage Martin Perera, commonly known as Dr. N. M. Perera, was one of the leaders of the Sri Lankan Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). He was the first Trotskyist to become a cabinet minister. He served two terms as Minister of Finance and Leader of the Opposition, as well as one term as the Mayor of Colombo.
The Communist Party of Sri Lanka is a communist party in Sri Lanka. In the 2004 legislative election, the party was part of the United People's Freedom Alliance that won 45.6% of the popular vote and 105 out of 225 seats.
Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party was a political group in Ceylon, that broke away from the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, since Philip Gunawardena refused to reconcile with the Bolshevik Samasamaja Party. When the BSP and LSSP fused in 1950, Gunawardena split to form VLSSP.
Bolshevik–Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma (BLPI) was a revolutionary Trotskyist party which campaigned for independence and socialism in South Asia. The party was formed in 1942 as a unification of two Indian groups, with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party of Ceylon. It was recognised as the Indian section of the Fourth International.
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, often abbreviated as LSSP, is a major Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. It was the first political party in Sri Lanka, having been founded in 1935 by Leslie Goonewardene, N.M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena and Robert Gunawardena. It currently is a member of the main ruling coalition in the government of Sri Lanka and is headed by Tissa Vitharana. The party was founded with Leninist ideals, and is classified as a party with socialist aims.
The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna is a political party in Sri Lanka. The party is currently led by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, son of Philip Gunawardena, the founder of the party.
Violet Vivienne Goonewardene, 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 independence movement and the Sri Lankan independence movement, Goonewardene was a prominent member on the non-aligned stage, where she fought against perceived injustices and was critical of the Middle East diplomacy sponsored by the United States. Goonewardene was the first and, to date, only female National Hero of Sri Lanka. By her death, she was one of the Left's most vibrant personalities, and the foremost female figure in the Sri Lankan leftist movement.
Edmund Peter Samarakkody was a Ceylonese lawyer, trade unionist, politician and Member of Parliament.
Hector Abhayavardhana was a Sri Lankan Trotskyist theoretician, a long-standing member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and a founder-member of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma.
Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena was a Sri Lankan Marxist politician and leftist. A founder of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the first political party in Ceylon which was known for having introduced Trotskyism, he later formed the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and was called 'the Father of Socialism' and as 'the Lion of Boralugoda'. A member of the State Council of Ceylon and the Parliament of Ceylon, he served as the Minister of Agriculture and food under S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike from 1956 to 1959 and as Minister of Industries and Fisheries in the national government under Dudley Senanayake from 1965 to 1970.
Parliamentary elections were held in Ceylon in 1956. They were a watershed in the country's political history, and was the first elections fought to realistically challenge the ruling United National Party. The former Leader of the House, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who was passed over after the death of the first Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake, crossed over to the opposition to form the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to launch his bid for Prime Minister.
The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna was electoral alliance founded in 1956. It consisted of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party led by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party led by Philip Gunawardena and Sinhala Bhasha Peramuna led by Wijeyananda Dahanayake and I.M.R.A. Iriyagolla (Independents)
Leslie Simon Goonewardene was a prominent Sri Lankan statesman. He founded Sri Lanka's first political party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, in 1935, and served as its General-Secretary from 1935 to 1977. Goonewardene was a key figure in both the Indian independence movement and the Sri Lankan independence movement. He was designated as a National Hero of Sri Lanka for his leadership in the independence movement, and his efforts are celebrated each year on the Sri Lankan Independence Day.
The Joint Opposition was a political alliance formed by a faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) alongside several of the major quasi-left-wing parties of Sri Lanka. It was once the largest opposition group in the Sri Lankan Parliament. It was formed after the two major parties, the SLFP and the United National Party (UNP) forming a unity government, leading to a great degree of discontent amongst many SLFP members, who then went on to form the Joint Opposition alongside other parties from the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA). It aims to give voice to the mandate voters provided to the UPFA at the 2015 general election in which many loyal SLFP members felt abandoned when the party joined the UNP-led government.
Vaithianathan Karalasingham was a Ceylon Tamil lawyer, writer, politician and one of the leading members of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.
Weerahennedige Theodore Wilfred Meryl Fernando was a Ceylonese teacher, trade unionist, politician and Member of Parliament.
Don Benjamin Rupasinghe Gunawardena, popularly as Robert Gunawardena, was a Sri Lankan Marxist politician and diplomat. He was one of the founders of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, which was the first political party in Sri Lanka, and served as the long time MP for Kotte. He was the leader of the Suriya-Mal Movement and served as ambassador to China between 1965 and 1970.
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.
