Sri Lanka is a unitary multi-party semi-presidential representative democratic republic,whereby the President of Sri Lanka is both head of state and head of government. 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.
Ranil Wickremesinghe is a Sri Lankan politician who is the 9th 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 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 and back in 2022.
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.
The Speaker of the Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the presiding officer of the chamber. The current Speaker of the Parliament is Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena,in office since 20 August 2020. The Speaker fulfills a number of important functions in relation to the operation of the House,which is based upon the British Westminster parliamentary system.
Wajira Abeywardana is a Sri Lankan United National Party politician and a member of parliament for Galle District. He is currently the leader of the United National Party of Sri Lanka. Wajira Abeywardana is one of the most senior leaders with 38 years of political experience in the party. He is also the leader who has dedicated almost the entirety of his career for the party.
Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena is a Sri Lankan politician who is currently serving as the Governor of the North Western Province of Sri Lanka. A former representative of Matara District for the United People's Freedom Alliance in the Parliament of Sri Lanka,he served as the cabinet minister of parliamentary affairs,Minister of Media,Deputy Minister of Economic Development,Minister of Foreign Employment Welfare,deputy minister of civil aviation and as the cabinet minister of Investment Promotion. He was the state minister for State Enterprise Development in the government of President Maithripala Sirisena. He has been in parliament from 1994 and 2019.
Unnanthi Piyankara Jayaratne,MP is a Sri Lankan politician and a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Matara electoral district is one of the 22 multi-member electoral districts of Sri Lanka created by the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka. The district is conterminous with the administrative district of Matara in the Southern province. The district currently elects 8 of the 225 members of the Sri Lankan Parliament and had 578,858 registered electors in 2010.
The 11th Parliament of Sri Lanka was a meeting of the Parliament of Sri Lanka,with the membership determined by the results of the 2000 parliamentary election held on 10 October 2000. The parliament met for the first time on 18 October 2000 and was dissolved on 10 October 2001.
Harin Fernando,MP is a Sri Lankan politician,Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament. He is the current Minister of Tourism and Lands as well as the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs. He previously served as the Minister of Sports before,as well as the Telecommunication,Digital Infrastructure Facilities,Foreign Employment,and Tourism ministers in previous Sri Lankan governments. He was the 7th Chief Minister of Uva Province.
The Constitutional Council (CC) is a 10-member constitutional authority in Sri Lanka tasked with maintaining independent commissions and monitoring its affairs. The Constitutional Council is aimed at depoliticizing the public service.
A constitutional crisis began in Sri Lanka when President Maithripala Sirisena appointed former president and member of parliament Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister on 26 October 2018 before formally dismissing the incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe,resulting in two concurrent Prime Ministers. Wickremesinghe and the United National Party (UNP) viewed the appointment as illegal,and he refused to resign.
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.
The 20th Amendment (20A) to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was passed by the 225-member Sri Lankan Parliament with 156 voting in favor,65 against and four abstained on 22 October 2020. The 20th amendment became a subject of political controversy as political activists,civil societies,international community expressed concerns over its bias towards Rajapaksa family. Critics called it as a constitutional bombshell as it was deemed as in violation to the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The proposed amendment reverses most of the reforms and amendments which were introduced in the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka in 2015. 20th amendment brought back most of the constitutional powers to the President which was previously abolished in the 19th amendment. The 19th amendment was the first instance in Sri Lanka where the executive powers were equally shared by the President along with the cabinet. The 20th amendment was often a political objective of ruling party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration which recorded landslide victories in both 2019 Sri Lankan presidential election as well as 2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary election. On 22 October 2020,the amendment was successfully passed in the parliament with a ⅔majority in the parliament.
S. Jagath Samarawickrama,is a Sri Lankan politician and Member of Parliament.
The inauguration of Ranil Wickremesinghe as the 8th executive president of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka took place on Thursday,21 July 2022. This officially marked the beginning of Wickremesinghe's term in office,which will conclude in November 2024.
