List of Presidents of Sri Lanka

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This article contains a list of Sri Lankan presidents .

The presidency in Sri Lanka

The office of President of Sri Lanka was re-established with the adoption of the second constitution since independence in 1948, which declared the country a republic in 1972. At the same time the country was renamed from Ceylon to Sri Lanka . Before that, the British monarch , who was usually represented by a governor-general , was head of state. According to the 1972 constitution, the president was head of state, but largely had a ceremonial, representative function. The real political power lay with the Prime Minister. In 1978 a new constitution was introduced that established a presidential system in Sri Lanka. The direct vote every six years elected president now had executive power ( "executive presidency" ), appointed the prime minister and the government that have not been the same again elected by parliament. However, with the 19th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, which came into force in 2015, the powers of the president were again significantly restricted in favor of the prime minister.

List of previous presidents

The following table contains a list of the previous presidents of Sri Lanka with their terms of office, party affiliation and the dates of the election.

# image Surname Date of election Taking office End of office Political party
1 William Gopallawa William Gopallawa (Gopallawa was previously Governor-General of Ceylon) May 22, 1972 4th February 1978 independent
2 Junius Richard Jayawardane Junius Richard Jayewardene after the UNP's victory in the parliamentary elections in 1977 , Jayewardene became Prime Minister and after the new presidential constitution came into force automatically President; he was re-elected on October 20, 1982 (first direct election of the President) 4th February 1978 January 2, 1989 UNP
3 Image of none.svg Ranasinghe Premadasa December 19, 1988 January 2, 1989 May 1, 1993
(assassinated while in office) 		UNP
4th Image of none.svg Dingiri Banda Wijetunga Wijetunga was Premadasa's prime minister at the time of death and then took over the official business on a temporary basis May 1, 1993 November 12, 1994 UNP
5 Chandrika Kumaratunga Chandrika Kumaratunga November 9, 1994
December 21, 1999 (re-election) 		November 12, 1994 November 19, 2005 SLFP
6th Mahinda Rajapaksa Mahinda Rajapaksa November 17, 2005
January 26, 2010 (re-election) 		November 19, 2005 January 9, 2015 SLFP
7th Maithripala Sirisena Maithripala Sirisena January 8, 2015 January 9, 2015 18th November 2019 SLFP †
8th Gotabaya Rajapaksa Gotabaya Rajapaksa 16th November 2019 18th November 2019 officiating SLPP

† Sirisena was supported by the UNP and only a minority of the SLFP in the 2015 election

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nineteenth Amendment. Sri Lankan Parliament website, accessed September 21, 2019 .
  2. ^ Dates of Elections. Sri Lankan Parliament, accessed August 8, 2015 .