| Leader of the Opposition ofSri Lanka ශ්රී ලංකා විපක්ෂ නායක இலங்கை எதிர்க்கட்சித் தலைவர் | |
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| Style | The Honourable |
| Appointer | Parliament of Sri Lanka |
| Term length | While leader of the largest political party in Parliament that is not in government |
| Inaugural holder | N. M. Perera |
| Formation | 14 October 1947 |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of Sri Lanka |
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InSri Lanka, theleader of the opposition is the leader of the largestpolitical party inParliament that is not a part of thegovernment. This is usually the leader of the second-largest party in Parliament.
Leader of theSamagi Jana BalawegayaSajith Premadasa has been the incumbentleader of the opposition in the Parliament since 3 January 2020. He was officially sworn in on 20 August 2020, after thespeaker announced his appointment in parliament.[1][2]
In 2016, the leader of the opposition received a salary month and other entitlements of aMember of Parliament.[3]
The leader of the opposition is entitled to anofficial residence, office, transport and security equal that of aCabinet Minister.[4][5]
In theSri Lankan order of precedence, the leader of the opposition is ranked at the level of aCabinet Minister in theorder of precedence.
Lanka Sama Samaja Party Sri Lanka Freedom Party United National Party Tamil United Liberation Front Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Samagi Jana Balawegaya
| No. (Terms) | Opposition Leader | Political party | Term of office | Government | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Took office | Left office | Days | |||||
| 1 | N. M. Perera ඇන්. ඇම්. පෙරේරා (1905–1979) | Lanka Sama Samaja Party | 14 October 1947 | 8 April 1952 | 1638 | D. S. Senanayake | 1st | ||
| Dudley Senanayake I | |||||||||
| Office vacant | 8 April 1952 | 9 June 1952 | 62 | – | |||||
| 2 | .jpg) | S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike එස්. ඩබ්. ආර්. ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක (1899–1959) | Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 9 June 1952 | 18 February 1956 | 1349 | 2nd | ||
| Kotelawala | |||||||||
| Office vacant | 18 February 1956 | 19 April 1956 | 61 | – | |||||
| S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike | 3rd | ||||||||
| (1) | N. M. Perera ඇන්. ඇම්. පෙරේරා (1905–1979) | Lanka Sama Samaja Party | 19 April 1956 | 5 December 1959 | 1325 | ||||
| Dahanayake | |||||||||
| Office vacant | 5 December 1959 | 30 March 1960 | 116 | – | |||||
| Dudley Senanayake II | – | ||||||||
| 3 |  | C. P. de Silva සී. පී. ද සිල්වා (1912–1972) | Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 30 March 1960 | 23 April 1960 | 24 | 4th | ||
| Office vacant | 23 April 1960 | 5 August 1960 | 104 | – | |||||
| Sirimavo Bandaranayake I | – | ||||||||
| 4 | .jpg) | Dudley Senanayake ඩඩ්ලි සේනානායක (1911–1973) | United National Party | 5 August 1960 | 17 December 1964 | 1595 | 5th | ||
| Office vacant | 17 December 1964 | 5 April 1965 | 109 | – | |||||
| Dudley Senanayake III | – | ||||||||
| 5 | _(Hon.Sirimavo_Bandaranaike_with_Hon.Lalith_Athulathmudali_Crop).jpg) | Sirimavo Bandaranaike සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක (1916–2000) | Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 5 April 1965 | 25 March 1970 | 1815 | 6th | ||
| Office vacant | 25 March 1970 | 7 June 1970 | 74 | – | |||||
| Sirimavo Bandaranayake II | – | ||||||||
| 6 | .jpg) | J. R. Jayewardene ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්ධන (1906–1996) | United National Party | 7 June 1970 | 18 May 1977 | 2537 | 7th | ||
| Office vacant | 18 May 1977 | 4 August 1977 | 78 | – | |||||
| Jayewardene | – | ||||||||
| 7 | | A. Amirthalingam அப்பாப்பிள்ளை அமிர்தலிங்கம் (1927–1989) | Tamil United Liberation Front | 4 August 1977 | 24 October 1983 | 2272 | 8th | ||
| Office vacant | 24 October 1983 | 8 November 1983 | 15 | ||||||
| 8 |  | Anura Bandaranaike අනුර බණ්ඩාරනායක (1949–2008) | Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 8 November 1983 | 20 December 1988 | 1869 | |||
| Office vacant | 20 December 1988 | 9 March 1989 | 79 | – | |||||
| Premadasa | – | ||||||||
| (5) | | Sirimavo Bandaranaike සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක (1916–2000) | Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 9 March 1989 | 24 June 1994 | 1902 | 9th | ||
| Wijetunga | |||||||||
| Office vacant | 24 June 1994 | 25 August 1994 | 62 | – | |||||
| 9 |  | Gamini Dissanayake ගාමිණි දිසානායක (1942–1994) | United National Party | 25 August 1994 | 24 October 1994 | 60 | 10th | ||
| Office vacant | 24 October 1994 | 28 October 1994 | 4 | ||||||
| Kumaratunga | |||||||||
| 10 |  | Ranil Wickremesinghe රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ (born 1949) | United National Party | 28 October 1994 | 10 October 2001 | 2549 | 10th 11th | ||
| Office vacant | 10 October 2001 | 18 December 2001 | 69 | – | |||||
| 11 |  | Ratnasiri Wickremanayake රත්නසිරි වික්රමනායක (1933–2016) | Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 18 December 2001 | 31 January 2002 | 378 | 12th | ||
| Office vacant | 31 January 2002 | 6 February 2002 | 6 | ||||||
| 12 |  | Mahinda Rajapaksa මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ (born 1945) | Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 6 February 2002 | 7 February 2004 | 730 | |||
| Office vacant | 7 February 2004 | 22 April 2004 | 75 | – | |||||
| (10) | | Ranil Wickremesinghe රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ (born 1949) | United National Party | 22 April 2004 | 9 January 2015 | 3914 | 13th | ||
| Mahinda Rajapaksa | 14th | ||||||||
| Office vacant | 9 January 2015 | 16 January 2015 | 7 | Sirisena I | |||||
| 13 |  | Nimal Siripala de Silva නිමල් සිරිපාල ද සිල්වා (born 1944) | Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 16 January 2015 | 26 June 2015 | 130 | Sirisena I | ||
| Office vacant | 26 June 2015 | 3 September 2015 | 69 | – | |||||
| 14 |  | R. Sampanthan இரா. சம்பந்தன் (1933–2024) | Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi | 3 September 2015 | 18 December 2018 | 1202 | Sirisena II | 15th | |
| (12) | | Mahinda Rajapaksa මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ (born 1945) | Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna | 18 December 2018 | 21 November 2019 | 338 | Sirisena IV | ||
| Office vacant | 21 November 2019 | 3 January 2020 | 43 | Gotabaya Rajapaksa | |||||
| 15 | | Sajith Premadasa සජිත් ප්රේමදාස (born 1967) | Samagi Jana Balawegaya | 3 January 2020 | Incumbent | 2154 | |||
| 16th | |||||||||
| Wickremesinghe | |||||||||
| Dissnayake | 17th | ||||||||
