Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna ( SLPP ; Sinhala ශ්රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ Lord Lamka Podujana Peramuna ; Tamil இலங்கை பொதுஜன முன்னணி Ilankai Potujaṉa Muṉṉaṇi ;. Dt, Sri Lanka popular front ') is incorporated in 2016 political party in Sri Lanka . The politically leading person and, since 2019, its chairman is ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa .
Party history
In the 2015 presidential election in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was internally divided. One part supported the party chairman and incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa, while another part stood behind his challenger, the SLFP dissident Maithripala Sirisena . After Sirisena's relatively surprising election victory, his supporters gained the upper hand in the SLFP and Sirisena was re-accepted into the SLFP, from which he had been excluded after the announcement of his candidacy. By virtue of his presidential office, he also became SLFP party chairman. However, the Rajapaksa supporters continued to maintain a strong position in the SLFP. Even after being voted out of office, the ambitious Rajapaksa retained significant influence in the Sri Lankan political landscape.
The persistent differences in the political course of the new President Sirisena led to the fact that many Rajapaksa supporters left the SLFP and joined the newly formed party 'Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna' (SLPP, “Sri Lanka Popular Front”) on November 2, 2016 found a new political home. Strictly speaking, the SLPP was not a start-up, but the party was renamed from an already existing small party Ape Sri Lanka Nidahas Peramuna (ASLNP, “Our Sri Lanka Freedom Front”). This, in turn, emerged in 2015 from the Sri Lanka Jathika Peramuna (SLJP, “National Front Sri Lankas”), also a small splinter party, founded in 2000 . Both SLJP and ASLNP were politically largely insignificant and without influence before 2016. The first chairman of the SLPP was GL Peiris, a former minister in the Rajapaksa government. Even if Mahinda Rajapaksa did not initially take on an official office in the SLPP, he was seen by political observers as the actual party leader and Chairman Peiris only as his placeholder or deputy.
The new party achieved great success in the regional and local elections in Sri Lanka in February 2018, where it won almost 45% of the votes nationwide, making it the strongest force.
On August 11, 2019, the SLPP held its first nationwide party conference at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo . Mahinda Rajapaksa also officially took over the party leadership of the SLPP from GL Peiris. On the same day, his younger brother, ex-Defense Minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa , was proclaimed the official SLPP presidential candidate in the upcoming presidential election . Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the election with 52.25% of the vote. In the parliamentary elections on August 5, 2020 , the SLPP was able to record another great success and received 59.1% of the votes and 64.4% of the parliamentary seats.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ranil Dharmasena: Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna formed. The Island, November 2, 2016, accessed October 14, 2019 .
- ↑ Uditha Devapriya: Kumara Welgama: Righteous Anger, Or Sour Grapes? Colombo Telegraph, October 26, 2018, accessed October 17, 2019 .
- ↑ All Island Results - Final. adaderana.lk, accessed on October 17, 2019 .
- ^ In Sri Lanka, local elections have rattled the government. The Economist, February 17, 2018, accessed October 17, 2019 .
- ↑ SLPP cruises to resounding win. The Island, February 11, 2018, accessed October 17, 2019 .
- ↑ SLPP names Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as presidential candidate. colombopage.com, August 11, 2019, accessed October 14, 2019 .