Lanka's 75-year political timeline: Milestones, mayhem and
Elections are held for Sri Lanka’s 101-seat House of Representatives (lower House in a bicameral Parliament) in August and September, contested by the United National Party (UNP), the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), the AllCeylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), the Ceylon Indian Congress, the Bolshevik-Leninist Party, the Communist Party and the Labour Party. The UNP, formed a year earlier and led by D.S. Senanayake, wins 42 seats and forms a government with the ACTC and independent MPs most of whom are from Tamil parties. Senanayake becomes the first Prime Minister. On November 13, 1947, the “Ceylon Independence Bill” is passed in the House of Commons in Britain. It receives Royal Assent (the signature of Britain’s King George VI) in December. February 03-04, 1948: Ceylon ceases to be a colony at midnight. The next morning, Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake addresses the nation as a free country after 443 years of rule by the Portuguese, Dutch and British. A ceremony is held in Colombo on February 10, 1948, attended by the Duke of Gloucester at the site where the Independence Hall is subsequently built.
July 12, 1951: Health and Local Government Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike crosses the floor of the House to announce his resignation from the government. On September 02, 1951, he forms the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
1947:
March 22, 1952: ‘Father of the Nation’ Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake, dies after a fall while horse-riding at Galle Face a day earlier. Four days after his death, Governor General Lord Soulbury calls on Senanayake’s son Dudley to form a government.
August 12-13, 1953: The country’s first civil disobedience campaign, termed the ‘Hartal’, called for by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSPP), is staged. Many sectors go on strike and demand the restoration of the rice subsidy. The unrest that follows leaves at least ten dead. Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake resigns on October 12. He is succeeded by John Kotelawala.
April 1956: At the election held from April 5-10, the SLFP wins
51 out of 95 contested seats in the 101-seat House of Representatives. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike becomes Prime Minister. Keeping a major election promise, Bandaranaike has the Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956, known as the 'Sinhala Only Act' passed, making Sinhala the sole official language of the country. Bandaranaike also nationalised bus companies and the Colombo port, forming the Central Transport Board and Ceylon Shipping Corporation respectively.
July 26, 1957: Bandaranaike signs the ‘BandaranaikeChelvanayakam’ Pact with Federal Party leader S.J.V. Chelvanayakam granting more autonomy to the Tamil community. Months later, on 09 April 1958, Buddhist monks protest at Bandaranaike’s Rosmead Place residence. He tears up the pact.
1958: Between May 22 and June 2, the first major clashes between the Sinhala and Tamil communities escalate into countrywide riots. Officially, 158 people are reported dead. On September 03, 1958, the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act is passed to offset the effects of the Official Language Act.
September 26, 1959: S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike dies after being shot at by a Buddhist monk, Thalduwe Somarama, a day earlier at Rosmead Place. Wijayananda Dahanayake is appointed caretaker prime minister.
March 1960: Dahanayake calls a general election. Contesting from the Lanka Prajathanthravadi Pakshaya, he wins only four seats. The UNP is the party with the most number of seats and Dudley Senanayake becomes Prime Minister, but the UNP lacks a simple majority and cannot form a stable government, leading
to another general election in July.
July 21, 1960: Bandaranaike’s widow, Sirima Bandaranaike, leads the SLFP to victory at the general elections and becomes the world’s first woman Prime Minister. In 1964, Ms. Bandaranaike nationalises the distribution of fuel, forming the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.
January 27, 1962: An attempted coup against the government by a group of senior Police, Army and Navy officers and public servants is thwarted. Those responsible are tried and convicted, but acquitted on appeal to the Privy Council in Britain. On March 2, 1962, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke is replaced as Governor General by William Gopallawa.
July 06, 1962: Thalduwe Somarama, convicted of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike’s assassination, is hanged after the restoration of capital punishment which had been abolished by Bandaranaike in 1956.
October 30, 1964: Ms. Bandaranaike signs the SirimaShastri Pact with Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, granting Ceylonese citizenship to 300,000 plantation workers of Indian origin, with 525,000 to be repatriated to India while the citizenship of another 150,000 “stateless” persons is to be negotiated later.
December 3, 1964: Leader of the House C.P. de Silva leads thirteen MPs to cross the floor of the House, opposing the Press Council Bill. The government loses the vote on the Throne Speech by one vote. Saumiyamoorthy Thondaman
who opposed the Sirima-Shastri Pact abstains from voting. March 22, 1965: Dudley Senanayake wins the general election and forms a government in coalition with the Federal Party, the first government to last its full term of office since independence.
May 27, 1970: Sirima Bandaranaike wins the general election and forms the ‘United Front’ government in coalition with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party. April 5, 1971: The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) launches an insurgency to capture state power and gains control of a few towns in its initial phase. The government regains total authority by June. At least 1,500 are believed to have died. A Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) is established and JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera and his comrades are sentenced to life imprisonment.
May 22, 1972: The Dominion of Ceylon becomes the ‘Republic of Sri Lanka’ following the adoption of the Republican Constitution by the Constituent Assembly at the Navarangahala at Royal College, Colombo. Governor-General William Gopallawa becomes President. The House of Representatives becomes the National State Assembly. The Senate and the Privy Council are abolished. All remaining links with the British Sovereign are severed.
April 13, 1973: Former Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake dies from a heart ailment. Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations are cancelled in most homes. Days later, an unprecedented gathering, estimated at over a million people, attend his funeral at Independence Square.
1975: Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike postpones general elections to 1977, claiming her five-year term begins only after enacting the Republican Constitution. The UNP launch a series of ‘Sathyagrahas’ demanding polls. Opposition Leader J.R. Jayewardene resigns his Colombo South seat in protest. He is returned at the subsequent by-election.
August 16-19, 1976: Prime Minister Bandaranaike chairs the 86-nation 5th Non-aligned Summit at Colombo’s
The fifth Non-Aligned Movement summit in Colombo
July 21, 1977: The UNP wins the general elections, securing a record 140 of the 168 seats in Parliament. J.R. Jayewardene becomes Prime Minister. Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Leader Appapillai Amirthalingam is Leader of the Opposition. The socialist-oriented economy of controls is liberalised and opened up for imports. Massive development projects such as the Mahaveli scheme begin. A Free Trade Zone is set up to attract foreign investments.
February 04, 1978: J.R. Jayewardene is sworn in as the first Executive President of Sri Lanka at Galle Face after the Republican Constitution is amended, converting the President to an Executive position.
September 7, 1978: A new Constitution is enacted, providing for an Executive Presidential system of government. The country is renamed the ‘Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka’. The National State Assembly reverts to Parliament.
October 16, 1980: Former Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike and former minister Felix. R. Dias Bandaranaike are found guilty of abuse of power and stripped of their civic rights following a 139 to 18 vote in Parliament.
April 29, 1982: The new Parliament building, gifted by Japan is opened at Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte. The old Parliament at Galle Face is converted to the Presidential Secretariat. October 20, 1982: Jayewardene wins the country’s first-ever presidential election, defeating his nearest rival Hector Kobbekaduwa of the SLFP and securing 52 percent of the vote. JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera, released from prison by Jayewardene, also contests and is placed third.
December 22, 1982: Jayewardene conducts a referendum on a proposal to extend the life of Parliament for a full new term. It is approved with 54 percent of the vote and in 120 electorates. July 24-30, 1983: Following the ambush and killing of thirteen soldiers in Thirunelveli, Jaffna by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a day earlier, mob violence erupts in the South of the country. Estimates of the death toll from the race riots range between 400 and 3,000. This results in a massive exodus of Tamils, leaving for the West claiming refugee status and seeking asylum.
May 14, 1985: LTTE terrorists massacre 146 persons at the Anuradhapura bus stand, Sri Maha Bodhiya and at the Wilpattu national park.
July 29, 1987: Following an unsolicited Indian air drop of food items over the North to stop a military assault on the LTTE, an Indo-Lanka Accord providing for a merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces, provincial councils and Indian troops in Sri Lanka is signed by President Jayewardene and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. A day later, Gandhi is attacked in Colombo by a Naval rating while inspecting a guard of honour. August 18, 1987: A meeting of UNP MPs in Parliament is disrupted by a grenade attack. MP Keerthi Abeywickrama and a Parliament employee die. Minister Lalith Athulathmudali is seriously injured. Ajith Kumara is charged with conspiracy to commit murder but is acquitted by the Colombo High Court due to lack of evidence on October 12, 1990.
June 1, 1989: President Ranasinghe Premadasa, elected in December 1988, demands the withdrawal of all Indian troops from Sri Lanka. On June 28, the LTTE announces a ceasefire with the Sri Lanka Army.
November 13, 1989: The insurgency by the JVP and its armed wing, the Deshapremi Janatha Viyapaaraya (DJV), with targeted killings of prominent personalities ends with the capture and killing of JVP leaders including Rohana Wijeweera. The insurrection is estimated to have cost more than 50,000 lives.
March 24, 1990: The last Indian soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force leave Sri Lanka.
June 11, 1990: The LTTE abducts and executes more than 600 Police officers in the Eastern Province after they receive orders from Colombo to surrender, ending the Premadasa government’s ceasefire with the LTTE.
August-October 1991: A motion to impeach President Premadasa is submitted to Parliament, spearheaded by UNP stalwarts Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali. Premadasa prorogues Parliament. On its resumption, Speaker M.H. Mohamed rules the motion is not valid as it does not have the required number of valid signatures.
April 23, 1993: Former Minister Lalith Athulathmudali is shot and killed while addressing a provincial council election rally at Kirillapone in Colombo.
August 16, 1994: The People’s Alliance led by Chandrika Kumaratunga wins the general election, ending seventeen years of UNP rule. Kumaratunga is appointed Prime Minister. Wijetunga continues as President, the first instance where leaders of two rival parties head different arms of government. October 24, 1994: Gamini Dissanayake, UNP candidate for the presidential election is killed in an election rally bomb blast at Thotalanga, Colombo. His widow Srima replaces him as candidate. Kumaratunga wins the poll that follows on November 9, 1994 with a record 62 percent of the vote. January 31, 1996: The LTTE Bank with an explosive-laden lorry. Ninetyone killed.
January 25, 1998:
February 04, 1998:
December 21, 1999:
February 22, 2002: The government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, elected on December 05, 2001, enter into a ceasefire agreement brokered by Norway. The government holds talks with the LTTE in Thailand, Norway, Germany, Japan and in Switzerland over the next few years.
February 20, 2005: The only (former) United States Presidents to visit Sri Lanka, George Bush (Snr.) and Bill Clinton arrive in Sri Lanka to observe the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004 that claimed over 35,000 Sri Lankan lives in the country’s greatest natural disaster.
August 12, 2005: Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, responsible for having the LTTE banned internationally and for recognising Vesak as an international day of celebration is killed at his Colombo home by an LTTE sniper.
January 16, 2008: The Sri Lankan government headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa formally ends the ceasefire with the LTTE following a series of ceasefire violations.
October 16, 2006: the Supreme Court rules that the merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces had ‘no force in law’.
May 19, 2009: After months of intense fighting, Sri Lanka declares victory in the Eelam war after the capture of all LTTEheld areas, the killing of LTTE leaders and the discovery of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran’s body at the Nanthikadal lagoon in the Mullaitivu district.
August 13, 2010: General Sarath Fonseka, former commander of the Sri Lanka Army and candidate at the 2010 presidential poll is court-martialled and later jailed. He is pardoned and released by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 21, 2012. Fonseka is subsequently promoted by a new government as Field Marshall with all privileges restored.
January 13, 2013: President Rajapaksa removes Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake from office after Parliament passes an impeachment motion against her two days earlier. Bandaranayake is later re-instated in office on January 28, 2015 by President Maithripala Sirisena and resigns a day later.
January 08, 2015: Maithripala Sirisena is elected President, defeating Mahinda Rajapaksa, ending a decade of rule by Rajapaksa. Ranil Wickremesinghe is appointed Prime Minister. October 26, 2018: President Sirisena triggers a constitutional crisis by ‘sacking’ Wickremesinghe, replacing him with Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sirisena dissolves Parliament on November 9, 2018, calling for elections on January 5, 2019. The Supreme Court determines this unconstitutional. Rajapaksa resigns on December 15, 2018; Wickremesinghe is reappointed the next day ending the 51-day crisis.
Apr 21, 2019: An Islamic extremist group stage a series of bomb explosions at several churches, luxury hotels and a guest house in Colombo, Negombo, Batticaloa and Dehiwala. Eight suicide bombers are responsible for the attacks which cost 269 lives including 46 foreigners.
November 16, 2019: Gotabaya Rajapaksa, candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is elected President, the first to do so from a party other than an alliance led by the UNP or the SLFP. He appoints his brother Mahinda as Prime Minister and brothers Basil and Chamal and nephew Namal as ministers.
March-July 2022: Protests erupt against fuel, gas and electricity shortages leading to the ‘Aragalaya’ campaign at Galle Face. On May 09, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigns. On June 09, Basil Rajapaksa resigns from Parliament. On July 09, Gotabaya Rajapaksa leaves President’s House, flying to the Maldives after crowds storm the President’s House and Presidential Secretariat. On July 14, Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigns. On July 20, Parliament elects Ranil Wickremesinghe as President.