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.
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga,commonly referred to by her initials CBK,is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the fourth executive president of Sri Lanka,from 12 November 1994 to 19 November 2005. She previously served as the prime minister from August to November 1994 and the chief minister of the Western Province from 1993 to 1994. She is the country's first and only female president to date and the country's second female prime minister. She was the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) until the end of 2005.
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 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.
Dissanayake Mudiyanse Ralahamilage Lionel Gamini Dissanayake,PC was a prominent Sri Lankan politician,a powerful minister of the United National Party,and Leader of the Opposition. He was designated as the UNP candidate in the 1994 presidential election,but was then assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Don Alwin Rajapaksa was a Sri Lankan politician and Member of Parliament who represented the Beliatta electorate in Hambantota district from 1947 to 1965. A founding member of Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Cabinet Minister of Agriculture and Land in Wijeyananda Dahanayake's government,he was the father of two Sri Lankan Presidents;Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa,is a former Sri Lankan politician and military officer,who served as the eighth President of Sri Lanka from 18 November 2019 until his resignation on 14 July 2022 due to months of public anger. He previously served as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development from 2005 to 2015 under the administration of his elder brother former President Mahinda Rajapaksa,during the final phase of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Nambukara Helambage Rajitha Harischandra Senaratne is a Sri Lankan dentist,politician,member of parliament and former cabinet minister. He is currently a member of parliament representing Kalutara district
Ravindra Sandresh Karunanayake is a Sri Lankan politician. A former Member of Parliament for the Colombo District,he served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from May 2017 to August 2017,Minister of Finance from 2015 to 2017,and Cabinet Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs from 2001 to 2004 and Cabinet Minister of Power and Energy since December 2018 till November 2019.
Dullas Daham Kumara Alahapperuma is a Sri Lankan politician and founder and current leader of the Freedom People's Congress. Alahapperuma is also a former Cabinet Minister of Information and Mass Media and a current Member of Parliament from the Matara District.
Basil Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan-American politician. He is a former Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for the national list.
The Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the head and most senior member of parliament in the cabinet of ministers. It is the second-most powerful position in Sri Lanka's executive branch behind the president,who is the constitutional chief executive. The Cabinet is collectively held accountable to parliament for their policies and actions.
The Rajapaksa family is a Sri Lankan family that is prominent in politics. It was one of Sri Lanka's most powerful families during Mahinda Rajapaksa's presidency,when many members of the family occupied senior positions in the Sri Lankan state. As their political power grew,there were reports suggesting that the country was heading towards autocracy under their rule. Following the unexpected defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential election,they have been accused of authoritarianism,corruption,nepotism and bad governance. In the 2019 presidential election,Gotabaya Rajapaksa,the brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa,ran and won. The popularity of the Rajapaksa family collapsed after their actions caused the economic crisis that started in 2019,resulting in Sri Lanka defaulting on its debt for the first time in its post-independence history within just 30 months of coming to power. The extended Rajapaksa family is believed to have amassed a large amount of wealth and while the amount of and scale is unknown several members of the family have been revealed in international investigations such as the Pandora Papers to be using networks of shell companies and trusts to hide their wealth in offshore tax havens which has led to accusations of Rajapaksas turning Sri Lanka into a Kleptocracy
Punchi Banda Jayasundara is a Sri Lankan economist. He was the former Secretary to the President,Gotabaya Rajapaksa and former Secretary of the Treasury on multiple occasions.
The Sri Lanka People's Front,commonly known by its Sinhalese name Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP),is a political party in Sri Lanka. Previously a minor political party known as the Sri Lanka National Front (SLNF) and Our Sri Lanka Freedom Front (OSLFF),it was relaunched in 2016 as the SLPP and became the home for members of the United People's Freedom Alliance loyal to its former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 16 November 2019. The incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena's term of office would have ended on 9 January 2020. This was the first presidential election in Sri Lanka where no sitting president,prime minister or opposition leader ran for president.
The 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis was a political crisis in Sri Lanka due to the power struggle between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the people of Sri Lanka. It was fueled by the anti-government protests and demonstrations by the public due to the economic crisis in the country. The anti-government sentiment across various parts of Sri Lanka has triggered a state of political instability that is unprecedented in the nation's history.
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka sometime between September and October 2024,according to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. Voters will elect a president for a term of five years. Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe is eligible to run for re-election.
