Sri Lanka,formerly known as Ceylon,and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka,is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean,southwest of the Bay of Bengal,and southeast of the Arabian Sea;it is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and the Maldives. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital,and Colombo is its largest city and financial centre.
Sri Lanka is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic,whereby the President of Sri Lanka is both head of state and head of government,and it relies on a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament. For decades,the party system was dominated by the socialist Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the conservative United National Party. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The politics of Sri Lanka reflect the historical and political differences between the three main ethnic groups,the Sinhala majority and the Tamil and Muslim minorities,who are concentrated in the north and east of the island.
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is a semi-presidential system determined by the Sri Lankan Constitution. It administers the island from both its commercial capital of Colombo and the administrative capital of Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte.
The president of Sri Lanka is the head of state and head of government of Sri Lanka. The president is the chief executive of the union government and the commander-in-chief of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces.
The Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the supreme legislative body of Sri Lanka. It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the island. It is modeled after the British Parliament.
Dinesh Chandra Rupasinghe Gunawardena is a Sri Lankan politician,Member of Parliament,Cabinet Minister,and Leader of House Parliament. He is the current leader of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP). He was appointed as the Minister of Education on 16th of August 2021
In Sri Lanka,the Leader of the Opposition is the leader of the largest political party in Parliament that is not in government. This is usually the leader of the second-largest party in Parliament. Sajith Premadasa officially took office as Leader of the Opposition on August 20,2020,after Speaker announces the appointment in parliament.
Rajavarothiam Sampanthan is a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and lawyer who has led the Tamil National Alliance since 2001. He has also been a Member of Parliament since 2001,and previously served as a Member of Parliament from 1977 to 1983 and from 1997 to 2000. He was the Leader of the Opposition from September 2015 to December 2018.
Amirthanathan Adaikalanathan,commonly known as Selvam Adaikalanathan,is a Sri Lankan Tamil militant turned politician and Member of Parliament. He was the Deputy chairman of committees of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from September 2015 to March 2020. He is the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization,a member of the Tamil National Alliance.
Pallewatte Gamaralalage 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.
Halkedaliya Lekamlage alias Mahawela Lekamlage Premalal Jayasekara,also known by his pseudonym Choka Malli is a Sri Lankan convicted murderer,politician,and is a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and a former government deputy minister.
Unnanthi Piyankara Jayaratne,MP is a Sri Lankan politician and a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Chamal Jayantha Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan politician who was Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from 2010 to 2015. Previously he served as Minister of Ports &Aviation and Irrigation &Water Management. He hails from a well known political family in Sri Lanka. His father,D. A. Rajapaksa,was a prominent politician,independence agitator,member of parliament and Minister of Agriculture and Land in Wijeyananda Dahanayake's government. He is the elder brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa,who was President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015. Nine members of the Rajapaksa family have been members of parliament in Sri Lanka.
Janaka Bandara Tennakoon is a Sri Lankan politician and a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. He is currently the Minister of Lands and Land Development. He was educated at Dharmaraja College,Kandy. He contested as the Group Leader of the Matale District of the Central Province and was elected to the Provincial Council with a majority of Proportional Votes in 1993;Elected as a Member of Parliament with a majority of proportional votes in the General Election of 1994;Elected as a Member of Parliament from the District of Matale with the majority of proportional votes in the general election of 2000.
Ganepola Arachchige Duleep Pandula Perera Wijesekera is a Sri Lankan politician. He is a member of the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and member of the Sri-Lankan parliament for the Gampaha District since 2004. He was the Deputy Minister of Disaster Management in the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi is a Sri Lankan political party which represents the Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic minority in the country. It was originally founded in 1949 as a breakaway faction of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC). In 1972,ITAK merged with the ACTC and Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) to form the Tamil United Front,which later changed its name to the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). ITAK remained dormant until 2004 when a split in the TULF resulted in ITAK being re-established as an active political party. ITAK is a constituent party of the Tamil National Alliance.
The Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the deputy head of the government of Sri Lanka,and the most senior member of parliament in the cabinet of ministers. The Cabinet is collectively held accountable to parliament for their policies and actions.
Ramesh Pathirana is a Sri Lankan politician,a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. 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.
Dharmalingam Siddarthan is a Sri Lankan Tamil militant turned politician,former provincial councillor and Member of Parliament. He is the leader of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam,a member of the Tamil National Alliance.
