List of Presidents of Sri Lanka
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 | (Gopallawa was previously Governor-General of Ceylon) | May 22, 1972 | 4th February 1978 | independent | ||
2 | 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 | Ranasinghe Premadasa | December 19, 1988 | January 2, 1989 | May 1, 1993 (assassinated while in office) |
UNP | ||
4th | 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 |
November 9, 1994 December 21, 1999 (re-election) |
November 12, 1994 | November 19, 2005 | SLFP | ||
6th | Mahinda Rajapaksa |
November 17, 2005 January 26, 2010 (re-election) |
November 19, 2005 | January 9, 2015 | SLFP | ||
7th | Maithripala Sirisena | January 8, 2015 | January 9, 2015 | 18th November 2019 | SLFP † | ||
8th | 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
- Former Presidents , official website of the Government of Sri Lanka (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Nineteenth Amendment. Sri Lankan Parliament website, accessed September 21, 2019 .
- ^ Dates of Elections. Sri Lankan Parliament, accessed August 8, 2015 .