United People's Freedom Alliance

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The symbol of the UPFA, a stylized betel leaf

The United People's Freedom Alliance ( UPFA , Sinhala එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය , Tamil ஐக்கிய மக்கள் சுதந்திரக் கூட்டணி , "Freedom Alliance of united people") is a party alliance in Sri Lanka . Politically, it belongs to the left, socialist spectrum. The symbol of the UPFA is a betel leaf .

history

The UPFA was founded in January 2004 in the run-up to the 2004 parliamentary elections, largely on the initiative of then President Chandrika Kumaratunga (SLFP) in Sri Lanka. The two founding parties were the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Other parties from the left political spectrum joined them later. The main political opponent was the United National Party (UNP), or the party alliance of the United National Front led by it . The formation of an alliance with the radical Marxist nationalist JVP was highly controversial within the SLFP, as the JVP had been involved in terrorist actions and uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s, which then killed tens of thousands. Kumaratunga's husband, Vijaya Kumartunga, was also killed in such a political attack in 1988.

In the 2004 general election, the UPFA won 45.6% of the vote and then formed a minority government. By deserting the opposition and joining other small parties, it finally won the majority of the parliamentary seats and was able to govern through the entire legislative period. In April 2005, the JVP left the UPFA again because of differences over the issue of how to deal with the Tamil Tigers . The 2005 presidential election was won by UPFA candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa . In 2010 Rajapaksa was re-elected and in the parliamentary elections in the same year the UPFA won significantly and received 60.3% of the vote. Shortly before the 2015 presidential election , a conflict within the UPFA became apparent when the incumbent Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena ran against the re-running Rajapaksa. Sirisena was then expelled from the UPFA and SLFP, but narrowly won the presidential election on January 8, 2015, as he was not only supported by Rajapaksa's opponents from the UPFA, but also by almost the entire opposition. Thereafter, Rajapaksa resigned as chairman of the SLFP and the UPFA, and Sirisena was elected to these positions. In the parliamentary elections on August 17, 2015 , the UPFA, which was still strongly influenced by its former chairman Rajapaksa, suffered a significant defeat and only got 42.38% of the vote and 95 seats in parliament. Shortly after the election, the SLFP and thus the UPFA split into two roughly equal groups, one that supported President Sirisena and one that rallied behind former President Rajapaksa. In 2016 the Rajapaksa wing finally left the SLFP and UPFA and formed the new party, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). Since then, the political weight of the SLFP and UPFA has decreased significantly.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A Brief History of the JVP (Peoples Liberation Front) Sri Lanka. JVP website, November 12, 2011, accessed July 15, 2015 .
  2. ^ Carola Stein: Parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka. International information from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, June 9, 2004, accessed on July 25, 2015 .
  3. ↑ JVP leaves UPFA, calls press conference on Thursday. TamilNet, June 15, 2005, accessed July 20, 2015 .
  4. ^ W. Mishler, S. Finkel, P. Peiris: The 2005 presidential and 2004 parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka. Notes on Recent Elections In: Electoral Studies. 26, 2007, pp. 205-209 doi: 10.1016 / j.electstud.2006.03.005
  5. ^ President Maithripala Sirisena appointed SLFP Chairman. adaderana.lk, January 16, 2015, accessed on July 15, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Verité Research / Westminster Foundation for Democracy (ed.): Mapping Sri Lanka's Political Parties: Actors and Evolutions . November 2017, p. 34 (English, pdf ).