1. Resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa
2. Accountability for corruption
3. Economic reforms
4. Access to essential services
5. Political reforms
6. Youth participation
The Sri Lanka People's Front (Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ, romanized: Śrī Laṃkā Podujana Peramuna; Tamil: இலங்கை பொதுஜன முன்னணி, romanized: Ilaṅkai Potujaṉa Muṉṉaṇi), commonly known by its Sinhalese name Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), is a political party in Sri Lanka. It was the ruling party in Sri Lanka from 2019 to 2022 and was the largest party in parliament from 2020 to 2024.[13] 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 the party became the base for members of the United People's Freedom Alliance loyal to its former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Rajapaksa family.[5]
The SLNF contested the 2010 Sri Lankan parliamentary election in 19 of the 22 electoral districts but failed to win any seats in Parliament after securing 5,313 votes (0.07%) across the country.[20] Geeganage contested in the 2015 Sri Lankan presidential election and came in last place, at 19th, after securing 1,826 votes (0.02%).[21]
Our Sri Lanka Freedom Front
In 2015, the SLNF changed its name to Our Sri Lanka Freedom Front (Ape Sri Lanka Nidahas Peramuna) and its symbol from the cricket bat to a flower bud.[22][23] In early 2016, OSLFF leader Geeganage hinted that a change in the party leadership was soon to come.[24]
In the 2018 Sri Lankan local elections, in a surprise result, the SLPP won a 40% plurality of votes, emerging as the party with the most councilors and local authorities;[33][34] they won 239 Local Government Bodies including Municipals Councils, Urban Councils, and Pradeshiya Sabhas.[35] The SLPP contested in the election under its flower bud symbol.[36] In the 2019 Sri Lankan presidential election, the younger brother of the Rajapaksas contested in the elections as the SLPP candidate and later won the election and was sworn in as the new president of Sri Lanka.[37][38] In the 2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary election, the SLPP won a landslide victory and a clear majority in the parliament, winning 116 seats in Parliament. Five members of the Rajapaksa family won seats in the parliament, and the former president Rajapaksa was sworn in as the new prime minister of Sri Lanka.[39]
The Rajapaksa administration introduced massive tax cuts in late 2019,[40] which lead to a drop in government revenue that was soon compounded with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the island nation losing its lucrative US$3 billion tourism industry that put 200,000 out of work in 2020 and most of 2021. Although the export sector picked up by 2021 and tourism started picking up, it appeared that Sri Lanka was facing its most severe economic crisis since its independence in 1948 due to the loss of revenue from tax cuts, rampant money printing and unsustainable borrowings. By end of 2021, Sri Lanka was facing a debt crisis with a possibility of sovereign default. According to a poll conducted by Verité Research in March 2022, the government's approval rating had fallen to just 10% as a result of the crisis.[41]
Following severe shortages of fuel, the state owned Ceylon Electricity Board was forced to implement 10–13 hour power cuts across the island in late March. The SLPP government was beginning to grow increasingly unpopular. This triggered the 2022 Sri Lankan protests, which demanded the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and other key officials from the Rajapaksa family.[42][43][44] On 3 April, several ministers in the second Gotabaya Rajapaksa cabinet submitted their resignations. This included three ministers from the Rajapaksa family: Chamal Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa, and Namal Rajapaksa.[45] The president was to announce the new cabinet the following day. On 18 April, Rajapaksa appointed 17 new cabinet members, selected among his party members. This move was seen as a sign of Rajapaksa's lack of willingness to listen and adhere to the protesters' demands.[46]
On 9 May, Rajapaksa tendered his resignation as prime minister to the president.[47] Rajapaksa was heavily criticised by netizens and the public for resigning after instigating violence against peaceful protests.[48]Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the new prime minister on 12 May. Eventually, protests peaked on 9 July, after large numbers of protesters gathered at Chatham Street, near the President's House, Colombo, demanding his immediate resignation. Protesters also broke into the Presidential Secretariat and Temple Trees, the prime minister's official residence,[49] and gathered around the private residence at 115 Fifth Lane of Wickremesinghe. The speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka issued a statement that night that Rajapaksa would resign from office on 13 July.[50][51] Political parties including the country's opposition agreed to form an all-party interim government after the president's resignation.[52][53] Wickremesinghe also announced that he would be willing to resign as prime minister, saying that he would do so once a new government was formed.[54][55]
Self-exile and resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa
On the morning of 13 July, Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka and appointed Wickremesinghe as acting president in his absence. Rajapaksa emailed a letter of resignation to the speaker of the parliament on 14 July the next day, thus marking the end of Rajapaksa's presidency.[56] The news of his resignation was celebrated by the public mainly at Galle Face and also in the other parts of Colombo.[57] On 15 July, the parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abewardhana announced the official resignation of Rajapaksa.[58] Wickremesinghe was officially sworn in as the acting president,[59] and was later elected in the 2022 Sri Lankan presidential election by the Parliament of Sri Lanka to complete the remainder of Rajapaksa's term.[60]
During the 2022 Sri Lankan presidential election, Dinesh Gunawardena temporarily succeeded Mahinda Rajapaksa as the de facto leader of the SLPP.[61] Gunawardena would later become Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. On 15 December 2023, the National Convention of the SLPP was held, in which Mahinda Rajapaksa was reappointed as the party leader.[62][63]
2024 presidential election
In 2024, there was much speculation whether the SLPP would field its own candidate or endorse incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe at the 2024 presidential election. In late July 2024, the SLPP announced that it would not endorse Wickremesinghe in the election.[64] On 7 August 2024, the SLPP announced Namal Rajapaksa, son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, as its candidate in the 2024 presidential election. He was the youngest candidate in the election.[65] Rajapaksa was eliminated after the first vote count, placing 4th behind Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Sajith Premadasa and Ranil Wickremesinghe and winning only 2.57% of the popular vote.[66]
From the election results so far it is apparent that the NPP is on the threshold of obtaining a two-thirds majority in Parliament , or fall slightly short. The SLPP managed to secure only 3 seats including one bonus seat (national list) in the Parliament through the results of the 2024 Election. The number of total votes obtained by the SLPP, once the largest party in Parliament from 2020 to 2024, was only 350,429 (3.14%) in this year’s parliamentary poll.[67]
If the NPP gets a two-thirds majority, it is the first time under the Proportional Representation system that one party has got a two thirds majority in Parliament. In 2010 the United People's Freedom Alliance and in 2020 the SLPP fell just short of a two thirds and had to get the support of some opposition members to get a two thirds majority.[68]
In 2019, the SLPP began to outperform the SLFP, which did not field a candidate in the 2019 presidential election.[11] The split and rightward turn of the SLPP,[3] which moved towards neo-nationalism and right-wing populism,[8][9] corresponded with the shifts of the nation's two other major parties: Anura Kumara Dissanayake's leftistJanatha Vimukthi Peramuna moved closer to social democracy and democratic socialism, while Sajith Premadasa's free-market oriented United National Party (and later the Samagi Jana Balawegaya) became more supportive of welfare.[11] Uyangoda described the SLPP as "a right wing, neo-conservative party that favours authoritarianism", and commented: "Though ironically created by the SLFP, the SLPP doesn't replace it, it merely displaces it. The SLPP will undoubtedly tread a free market-oriented path but have Mahinda Rajapaksa to disguise its policy in state-capitalist rhetoric."[11] Ahead of the 2019 elections, Deshika Elapata, a junior researcher of the European Institute for Asian Studies, described the SLPP as "a socially right-wing and economically left-wing party rooted in Sinhalese nationalism and social democracy".[6]
^This was an indirect election. During this election, one faction of the SLPP supported Wickremesinghe from the UNP, while the other faction supported Alahapperuma from the SLPP.
^Total number of seats won by SLPFA, SLPP alone won 100 seats
^ abcJayatilleka, Dayan (12 November 2017). "The SLFP's Crisis". Colombo Telegraph. Colombo, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 14 July 2022. In the growing Oppositional space, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Rajapaksa family, and Prof G. L. Peiris would naturally have been a strong, organic center-left or liberal-nationalist moderate center, but they have been pulled to or pushed by the neo-nationalist populist Right, due to the ideological gravitational effect or osmosis of the Buddhist clergy and civil society as well as Diaspora pressure groups.
^Jayamanna, Kamal; Marasinghe, Sandasen (12 February 2018). "Historic victory for SLPP – JO". Daily News. Colombo, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
^ abcJayakody, Rasika (8 October 2017). "Week of Masqueraders". The Sunday Observer. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
