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 again from 2022 to 2024.
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.
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, and moderating its rhetoric. The JVP has been led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake since 2014.
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.
Field Marshal Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka is a politician and retired Sri Lankan army officer. He was the eighteenth Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, and under his command the Sri Lankan Army ended the 26-year Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009, defeating the militant group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; he thereafter briefly served as the Chief of Defence Staff. After retiring from the Army with the rank of General, he entered politics as the common opposition candidate in the 2010 presidential election contesting against President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, commonly referred to by his initials AKD, is a Sri Lankan politician who has been the tenth and current president of Sri Lanka since 2024. Dissanayake is the first Sri Lankan president to be elected in a second round of vote counting, and the first elected president not from Sri Lanka's traditional political parties.
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.
Inter-University Students' Federation is a confederation of students' unions across Sri Lanka. Around 70 students' unions are affiliated with the confederation, accounting for more than 95% of all higher and further education unions in Sri Lanka. The IUSF is the organization that is given leadership to whole university students in Sri Lanka. It is the largest student organization in Sri Lanka to date. It represents the voice of student councils and action committees in 15 higher education institutes including all major universities and technical colleges in Sri Lanka.
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.
Events from the year 2012 in Sri Lanka.
Vijalath Pathirannehelage Lalith Wijeratne, popularly as Lalith Wijerathna, was a Sri Lankan politician and militant leader. He was a member of the JVP party in the period 1983-1990. He was known to be appointed as the third leader of the JVP after Rohana Wijeweera and Saman Piyasiri Fernando.
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.
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.
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.
The National People's Power (NPP) or Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB) is a centre-left to left-wing political alliance in Sri Lanka. It was formed as a coalition of left-wing and progressive parties that aimed to present an alternative to the existing political establishment. The NPP emerged as a response to the perceived failures of traditional parties in the Sri Lankan political system. It is the current ruling party of Sri Lanka, having won the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, and is currently the largest party in the Parliament of Sri Lanka. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is the current leader of the party and Nihal Abeysinghe is the general secretary.
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.
Nandathilaka Amadoru Galappaththi Sinhala: නන්දතිලක ගලප්පත්ති; 2 February 1949 – 10 September 1989), was a Sri Lankan political activist who was killed by army forces. He was the Education Secretary and a member of the JVP party in the period 1970–1989. He was also known as Perera, Liyanage and Ari.
Mesthree Tilvin Silva is a Sri Lankan Marxist politician serving as the General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and a founding member of the NPP. Silva has played a significant role in shaping the JVP's policies and strategies, particularly focusing on social justice, anti-corruption, and economic reforms. He has been described as one the closet allies of the president Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
