Sri Lanka - Politics

The People’s Alliance coalition, led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and consisting of seven mostly left-of-centre parties, came to power in the August 1994 general election. The leader of this coalition, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, became the prime minister, but relinquished her position to stand in the presidential election in November 1994, which she won. Her mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, became prime minister, her third term over a span of four decades.

In July 1999, the moderate Tamil politician Neelam Tiruchelvam, the architect of the government’s devolution plans, was killed by a suicide bomber in Colombo. In an early presidential election of December 1999, having narrowly escaped assassination, Kumaratunga won her second term with 51% of the votes while her main rival, United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, received nearly 43%. The winning margin was less than in 1994.

In August 2000, the government failed to gain the two-thirds majority of parliament for its constitutional reform, designed to end the 17-year civil war (see ‘Communal conflict’ under the ‘History’ section earlier). This entailed the devolution of substantial powers on elected councils in seven provinces and an interim appointed council in the two provinces (Northern and North-Eastern) with majority Tamil populations.

After a violent campaign in which at least 70 people died, in the parliamentary elections of October 2000, the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) won 107 of the 225 parliamentary seats, the UNP 89 and the Marxist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) ten. Short of a working majority, the new government was dependent on the support of the smaller parties, and this diverted its attention from new peace initiatives and its economic reform programme.

By June 2001 the PA lost its majority in parliament following defections; the UNP tabled a motion for a confidence vote and in October early parliamentary elections were called for December 2001. These gave the UNP 109 seats, the president’s PA 77, JVP 16, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) 15 and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) five. With the support of the TNA and SLMC, the UNP commanded a majority in the National Assembly, and the president was obliged to appoint UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe prime minister and invite him to form a government.

Thus, in due course, the president found herself chairing a cabinet composed entirely of political opponents. The new government was nevertheless determined to pursue the peace process. But as the end of the government’s first year in office approached (when the president had the power to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections), relations between president and government became increasingly strained. However, both the president and prime minister remained committed to the peace process, though there were ongoing differences over what the government’s position should be.

In 2002, with the influence of the prime minister the government signed a ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and invited Scandinavian countries, led by Norway, to monitor the truce.

In November 2003, the week before the seventh round of peace talks was due to take place, the president sacked three ministers, suspended parliament and first declared then lifted a state of emergency, calling for a government of national reconciliation, plunging the country into political crisis. This endured until April 2004 when in a snap election the president’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) – a new alliance with the JVP – took 105 seats and 46% of the votes, while the UNP won 82 seats and the Tamil National Alliance 22. President Kumaratunga formed a government and UPFA’s Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as prime minister but, without an overall majority, they would be depending on the support of members of minority parties and any opposition members who crossed the floor.

After the election, there were efforts to get the stalled peace process under way again. The new government invited the Norwegian mediators to return to the country to arrange peace talks between LTTE and the government, but governing alliance partner JVP remained staunchly opposed to any solution that involved power-sharing.

In the presidential election in November 2005, Rajapaksa, with just over 50% of the votes, defeated UNP leader Wickremasinghe. The overall turnout was 74%, even though many Tamils boycotted the election in the LTTE-controlled areas in the north and east of the country. President Rajapaksa’s appointment strengthened the power of the UPFA-led government.

In late 2006 there were two major set-backs to the peace process: in October peace talks with the Norwegian mediators in Geneva broke down without agreement; and in December, with hostilities already intensifying, the LTTE’s senior negotiator, Anton Balasingham, died. For most of 2007 it was apparent that the ceasefire agreement signed in 2002 was no longer respected by the parties; the government officially withdrew from the agreement in January 2008.

By January 2009, after very intense fighting in the north-east of the country, government forces were reported to be in control of most of the country including the LTTE strongholds of the Jaffna Peninsula, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, and claimed they were very close to defeating the LTTE. There were mounting concerns in the international community about the security of an estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone. In May 2009 LTTE leader and founder Velupillai Prabhakaran died in combat. The government proclaimed victory and the war that had began in 1983 came to an end. Some 300,000 displaced persons who had fled the conflict were living in camps established by the government.