Sajith Premadasa

Early life and education

Sajith Premadasa was born on 12 January 1967 in Colombo to Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was Minister of Broadcasting and a Member of Parliament from the Colombo District at the time, and his wife Hema Premadasa. He had one sister, Dulanjali. His father was elected as the President of Sri Lanka in 1988, having served as Prime Minister from 1977 to 1989.

Sajith Premadasa was schooled at S. Thomas' Preparatory School and Royal College, he sat for his ordinary (O/L) and advanced level (A/L) examination at Mill Hill School, London. Premadasa won the A/L prize for politics and business studies and besides being appointed a prefect, also played in the first 11 cricket team for four years, captaining the side in 1986. A graduate of the London School of Economics (LSE) and the University of London, his aegrotat degree covered the areas of economics, politics and international relations. He interned in the Foreign Relations Committee under US Senator Larry Pressler, a Republican from South Dakota. Premadasa met many other influential senators, including John McCain and 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry. Whilst completing his master's degree in the United States at the University of Maryland, College Park, he returned to Sri Lanka following his father's assassination.

Political career

Sajith Premadasa entered Sri Lankan politics following the assassination of his father in 1993. Having joined his father's party, the United National Party, he was appointed district organiser of the UNP for the Hambantota District in 1994, where he launched several projects for poverty alleviation and housing development. He initiated the youth movement Tharuna Saviya, the People Development Foundation Jana Suwaya for poverty alleviation in Hambantota, and the Sasunata Aruna to aid Buddhist temples and Sunday schools in line with the 2600 Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi celebrations.

Parliament (2000–2019)

In the 2000 general election, Sajith Premadasa contested from the Hambantota district. He was elected and entered parliament, gaining 83% of the UNP preferential votes. He won 82% of the preferential votes in the 2001 general election, 84% in the 2004 general election, 89% in the 2010 general election and 86% in the 2015 general election.

He was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Health under the premiership of Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2001 and remained until 2004 when the Wickremesinghe government was dissolved by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

For the fourth general election in a row in 2010, Premadasa won the highest percentage of preferential votes out of all UNP candidates, which was just under 90% of all United National Party votes in the Hambantota Electoral District. Premadasa was elected as the deputy leader of the United National Party in 2011, but was removed from the position in 2013. He was later reappointed on 24 September 2014.

Minister of Housing and Samurdhi

Following the 2015 presidential election, Sajith Premadasa was appointed Minister of Housing and Samurdhi in the new cabinet formed in January 2015 by President Maithripala Sirisena. As housing minister, Premadasa initiated several national housing projects for lower and middle-income families. These include Gamudawa, Jalthara Green Valley apartments, and Mount Clifford, Homagama. As Samurdhi minister, he increased the Samurdhi payment by twofold. With the addition of construction to his portfolio, he initiated the Shelter For All 2025 objective and provided over 65,000 houses to low-income families and initiated 2500 villages.

2019 presidential election

The United National Party did not field a presidential candidate in both the 2010 and 2015 elections and instead endorsed a common candidate. Even though they won the 2015 election and elected Maithripala Sirisena through their support, relations between the president and the UNP had been shaky from the beginning. The power struggle between the president and UNP prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe led to the 2018 Sri Lankan constitutional crisis. In the aftermath of the events, most of the UNP members publicly expressed their regret for supporting a common candidate in 2015 and promised to field their own presidential candidate in the 2019 elections.

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was the obvious choice for the candidacy and he reportedly expressed his intentions to run for the presidency in a meeting with other senior members. Meanwhile, several rebel MPs including Mangala Samaraweera, Harin Fernando, Ajith Perera, Harsha de Silva, Sujeewa Senasinghe wanted deputy leader Premadasa as the party's candidate and organised a rally in Badulla where Premadasa openly expressed his intentions to be the UNP candidate.

With the growing support for Premadasa and party leader Wickremesinghe refusing to make a move, Speaker of the parliament Karu Jayasuriya released a statement signaling his intention to run for presidency to end the confusion and avoid a rift within the party. The Premadasa faction gained strong support from fellow party members through successful rallies in Matara, Kurunegala and Matugama. Eventually, Premadasa was picked as the UNP's candidate for the election.

Premadasa was defeated by SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who campaigned on a pro-nationalistic, economic development and national security platform. Rajapaksa received 6,924,255 votes (52.25% of the total votes) and a 1,360,016 vote majority over Premadasa, who polled 41.99% of the total votes. Rajapaksa won a majority in the predominantly Sinhalese areas of the island. At the same time, Premadasa gained a majority in areas dominated by Tamil and Muslim minorities, whom had been greatly affected by the country's civil war. Following the election, Premadasa stepped down from all ministerial portfolios and posts, including the post of Deputy Leader of the United National Party.

Leader of the Opposition (2019–present)

On 5 December 2019, he was nominated as the leader of the opposition and was officially named by the speaker on 3 January 2020. With his appointment as Leader of Opposition, he was automatically given a seat as a Member of Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka).

2020 parliamentary election and split from the UNP

Premadasa was selected by his party as the prime ministerial candidate of the UNP on 30 January 2020. He was named the leader of the alliance after a majority of party front liners backed him over UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. He was appointed as the leader of the newly formed Samagi Jana Sandhanaya led by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya to contest in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

2022 Sri Lankan political crisis

Premadasa refused an invitation by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to accept the premiership during the 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis. Following the resignation of Rajapaksa, he initially announced to run as a candidate for president in the indirect presidential election. However, the day before the election, he withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Dullas Alahapperuma.

2024 presidential election

Premadasa contested the 2024 presidential election as the candidate of Samagi Jana Balawegaya, against his former leader and incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of National People’s Power.

Premadasa came second behind Dissanayake with 4,363,035 (32.76%) votes in the first count of votes while Dissanayake gained 5,634,915 (42.31%) votes. Since no candidate was able to secure a majority, a second count of preferential votes was held between Dissanayake and Premadasa. However, despite gaining 167,867 additional preference votes, Premadasa trailed behind Dissanayake, who won the election with 5,740,179 (55.89%) votes at the end of the second vote count. Premadasa remained in 2nd with 4,530,902 (44.11%) votes, thus losing his second bid for presidency.

Electoral history

References

References

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