Sajith Premadasa (Sinhala:සජිත් ප්රේමදාස,Tamil:சஜித் பிரேமதாச; born 12 January 1967) is a Sri Lankan politician. He is the currentLeader of the Opposition of Sri Lanka and aMember of Parliament for theColombo District.[1] He is the current leader of theSamagi Jana Balawegaya.[2]
Sajith Premadasa is the son ofRanasinghe Premadasa,president of Sri Lanka from 1989 to 1993. He was educated atS. Thomas' Preparatory School,Royal College, Colombo andMill Hill School before entering theLondon School of Economics. He was doing his postgraduate studies at theUniversity of Maryland when his father wasassassinated in 1993.
Following his father's assassination, he returned to Sri Lanka and entered politics. He was elected to parliament in2000, representing theHambantota District as a member theUnited National Party, his father's party, and was appointed Deputy Minister of Health in 2001, serving until 2004. He was appointed deputy leader of the UNP in 2011 and was appointedMinister of Housing and Samurdhi in PresidentMaithripala Sirisena'scabinet in 2015.
Premadasa contested the2019 presidential election as the candidate ofNew Democratic Front, placing second. In December 2019, he was appointed as Leader of the Opposition and a member of theConstitutional Council of Sri Lanka.[3] In 2020, Premadasa split from the UNP to lead his own political party, theSamagi Jana Balawegaya, and ran in the2020 parliamentary elections as the leader and prime ministerial candidate of the new alliance.[4][5][6] In2024, Premadasa ran for president a second time, once again finishing in second place.[7][8]
Sajith Premadasa was born on 12 January 1967 inColombo toRanasinghe Premadasa, who was Minister of Broadcasting and aMember of Parliament from theColombo District at the time, and his wifeHema Premadasa. He had one sister, Dulanjali. His father was elected as the President of Sri Lanka in1988, having served as Prime Minister from 1977 to 1989.
Sajith Premadasa was schooled atS. Thomas' Preparatory School andRoyal College, he sat for his ordinary (O/L) and advanced level (A/L) examination atMill 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.[citation needed] A graduate of theLondon School of Economics (LSE) and theUniversity of London, his aegrotat degree covered the areas of economics, politics and international relations.[9] He interned in theForeign Relations Committee underUS SenatorLarry Pressler, aRepublican fromSouth Dakota. Premadasa met many other influential senators, includingJohn McCain and2004 presidential candidateJohn Kerry.[10] Whilst completing his master's degree in theUnited States at theUniversity of Maryland, College Park, he returned to Sri Lanka followinghis father's assassination.[11]
Sajith Premadasa entered Sri Lankan politics following the assassination of his father in 1993. Having joined his father's party, theUnited National Party, he was appointed district organiser of the UNP for theHambantota District in 1994, where he launched several projects for poverty alleviation and housing development. He initiated the youth movementTharuna Saviya, the People Development FoundationJana Suwaya for poverty alleviation in Hambantota, and theSasunata Aruna to aid Buddhist temples[12] and Sunday schools in line with the 2600 Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi celebrations.
In the2000 general election, Sajith Premadasa contested from theHambantota district. He was elected and entered parliament, gaining 83% of the UNP preferential votes. He won 82% of the preferential votes in the2001 general election, 84% in the2004 general election, 89% in the2010 general election and 86% in the2015 general election.[13][14]
He was appointed as theDeputy Minister of Health under the premiership ofRanil Wickremesinghe in 2001 and remained until 2004 when the Wickremesinghe government was dissolved by PresidentChandrika Kumaratunga.[9]
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 allUnited National Party votes in the Hambantota Electoral District.[14] Premadasa was elected as the deputy leader of theUnited National Party in 2011, but was removed from the position in 2013. He was later reappointed on 24 September 2014.[15]
Following the2015 presidential election, Sajith Premadasa was appointedMinister of Housing and Samurdhi in thenew cabinet formed in January 2015 by PresidentMaithripala Sirisena.[16] As housing minister, Premadasa initiated several national housing projects for lower and middle-income families. These includeGamudawa, 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 theShelter For All 2025 objective and provided over 65,000 houses to low-income families and initiated 2500 villages.[17][9]
The United National Party did not field a presidential candidate in both the2010 and2015 elections and instead endorsed a common candidate.[18] Even though they won the 2015 election and electedMaithripala 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 ministerRanil Wickremesinghe led to the2018 Sri Lankan constitutional crisis.[19] 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 the2019 elections.[20]
UNP leaderRanil 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 includingMangala Samaraweera,Harin Fernando,Ajith Perera,Harsha de Silva,Sujeewa Senasinghe wanted deputy leader Premadasa as the party's candidate and organised a rally inBadulla where Premadasa openly expressed his intentions to be the UNP candidate.[21]
With the growing support for Premadasa and party leader Wickremesinghe refusing to make a move, Speaker of the parliamentKaru Jayasuriya released a statement signaling his intention to run for presidency to end the confusion and avoid a rift within the party.[22] The Premadasa faction gained strong support from fellow party members through successful rallies inMatara,[23]Kurunegala[24] andMatugama.[25] Eventually, Premadasa was picked as the UNP's candidate for the election.
Premadasa was defeated bySLPP candidateGotabaya Rajapaksa, who campaigned on a pro-nationalistic,economic development andnational 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 predominantlySinhalese areas of the island. At the same time, Premadasa gained a majority in areas dominated byTamil andMuslim minorities, whom had been greatly affected by the country'scivil war.[26] Following the election, Premadasa stepped down from all ministerial portfolios and posts, including the post of Deputy Leader of the United National Party.[27]
On 5 December 2019, he was nominated as the leader of the opposition and was officially named by the speaker on 3 January 2020.[28][29] With his appointment as Leader of Opposition, he was automatically given a seat as a Member ofConstitutional Council (Sri Lanka).
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.[30][4][31] He was appointed as the leader of the newly formedSamagi Jana Sandhanaya led by theSamagi Jana Balawegaya to contest in the2020 parliamentary elections.
Premadasa refused an invitation by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to accept the premiership during the2022 Sri Lankan political crisis.[32] Following the resignation of Rajapaksa, he initially announced to run as a candidate for president in theindirect presidential election.[33] However, the day before the election, he withdrew his candidacy and endorsedDullas Alahapperuma.[34]
Premadasa contested the2024 presidential election as the candidate of Samagi Jana Balawegaya,[7] against his former leader and incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe, andAnura Kumara Dissanayake, leader ofNational People’s Power.[35]
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.[8]
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| Preceded by | Leader of the Opposition 2019–Present | Incumbent |
