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. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Ranil Wickremesinghe is a Sri Lankan politician serving as the ninth and current President of Sri Lanka. He also holds several ministerial roles, including Minister of Finance, Minister of Defence, Minister of Technology and Minister of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment. Wickremesinghe has led the United National Party (UNP) since 1994 and has been Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on six occasions.
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.
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is one of the main political parties of Sri Lanka. It was founded by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1951 and has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena since. It first came to power in 1956 and has served as the predominant ruling party on a number of occasions. It is currently the third largest party in the Parliament of Sri Lanka after the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya.
The United National Front (UNF), later the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG), was a political alliance in Sri Lanka led by the United National Party.
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.
Sajith Premadasa is a Sri Lankan politician. He is the current Leader of the Opposition of Sri Lanka and Member of Parliament for Colombo District. He is the current leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya.
Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage Ranjith Madduma Bandara is a Sri Lankan politician and a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. He was appointed as the cabinet Minister of Law and Order and Minister of Public Administration and Management by the President, Maithripala Sirisena, on 8 March 2018. He has also acted as the Minister of Transport.
The 14th Parliament of Sri Lanka was a meeting of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, with the membership determined by the results of the 2010 parliamentary election held on 8 and 20 April 2010. The parliament met for the first time on 22 April 2010 and was dissolved on 26 June 2015.
Vasudeva Nanayakkara is a Sri Lankan left-wing politician, Member of Parliament and presidential candidate in the 1982 and 1999 Sri Lankan presidential elections.
The All Ceylon Makkal Congress is a registered political party in Sri Lanka. It was founded in 2005 by Rishad Bathiudeen. Since 2020, the All Ceylon Makkal Congress has been a constituent party of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).
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.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 5 August 2020 to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka's 16th Parliament. 16,263,885 people were eligible to vote in the election, 31.95% of whom were young voters.
The Samagi Jana Balawegaya is a political alliance led by Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa. It is the largest opposition party in the Parliament of Sri Lanka since 2020.
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.
Jeevan Thondaman is a Sri Lankan politician, Member of Parliament and Cabinet minister.
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 ⅔ majority in the parliament.
