The oldest political party in Sri Lanka is the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). The Communist Party was formed after that. Both these parties are leftist parties. As an alternative to these leftist parties, the United National Party (UNP) was created as a right-wing party.
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) as a centrist party, as an alternative both to the right-wing UNP and to the leftist Sama Samaja and Communist Parties.
At the 1952 general election, the SLFP became the alternative party to the UNP, and the two-party system in Sri Lanka began.
Until 1994 this two-party system – that is, the right-wing UNP and the left-leaning SLFP – alternately held power. The first political party of Sri Lanka, the LSSP, as well as the Communist Party, also joined this two-party system, forming alliances with the SLFP because the policies of the SLFP leaned towards the left.
The first parties to collapse within this two-party system were the LSSP and the Communist Party. The reason was the attempts by their leaders to hold onto party leadership until the end of their lives.
This same disease fell upon the UNP after 1994. That is because Ranil, who became the party leader in 1994, also attempted to hold onto party leadership until the end of his life. Because of this, after 2010 rebellions and turmoil arose within the UNP, weakening the party.
To protect the leadership of a weakened party, what Ranil did in the 2015 presidential election was to present the SLFP Secretary as the common candidate. After the victory, Ranil used Maithripala, making him the leader of the SLFP, and created a UNP–SLFP national government, thereby destroying the SLFP.
The end of Sri Lanka’s two-party system was destined to occur on the day when Ranil became the UNP leader, Maithri became the SLFP leader, and the two parties united to form a national government. But Mahinda did not join that national government; instead, he formed a party called the Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), thereby restoring the two-party system in Sri Lanka.
In 2019, the victory of Gotabaya of the SLPP against Sajith, the UNP’s candidate, secured the future of Sri Lanka’s two-party system. Mahinda and Gotabaya turned the destroyed SLFP into the Podujana Peramuna. Sajith turned the destroyed UNP into the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).
But after the 2022 Aragalaya (protest movement), the Rajapaksa family – Gotabaya, Mahinda and others – made Ranil President and handed over the SLPP parliamentary group to him, thereby repeating the mistake that Ranil and Maithri had made in 2015.
If Ranil had made Namal Rajapaksa Prime Minister and gone for a general election, or if he had made Namal Prime Minister and presented him as the candidate for the 2024 presidential election, the SLPP would not have been destroyed in this manner.
What Ranil did was weaken the SLPP by turning it against Mahinda, Namal, and the Rajapaksa family, eventually bringing the party under his control. In 2024, he repeated with the SLPP what had already happened to the SLFP in 2019.
Not stopping there, Ranil also attempted to bring the SJB – which had been formed to safeguard the two-party system – under his control, with the intention of dismantling it as well.
“Political party system in Sri Lanka is over…”
– Ranil Wickremesinghe, to India Today
This was what President Ranil proudly told the foreign media. What he wanted was, since the UNP he leads had become a minor party and had been rejected by the people, to destroy the other parties and bring the party system to an end.
But Sajith, against Ranil’s schemes, managed to protect the SJB. After Ranil split and destroyed the SLPP into two or three parts, the political strategist of the Rajapaksa family, Basil Rajapaksa, understood the danger and fielded Namal as the SLPP’s candidate for the presidential election.
In the 2024 presidential election, Ranil took the minority ethnic votes that should have gone to Sajith Premadasa and the SLPP votes that should have gone to Namal. After the 2024 presidential election, Ranil contested the 2025 local government elections from the UNP, and the SLPP votes Ranil had taken in 2024 were claimed back by Namal.
In the 2024 presidential election, Sajith and Namal received the opportunity to rebuild the distorted two-party system. That is, Sajith by bringing all right-leaning parties under the SJB, and Namal by bringing all left-leaning parties under the SLPP.
“So, what is Ranil saying about all parties coming together to strengthen a multi-party system…?”
Ranil is once again resorting to his old strategy. Just as he weakened the UNP, he now seeks to undermine other parties, with the ultimate aim of dismantling Sri Lanka’s party system while safeguarding his UNP leadership until the end of his life. By now, his game plan is evident, and the few remaining in the UNP believe that, to secure their own political future, they must align themselves with the SJB.
If they join the SJB, Ranil will be left empty-handed. That is why he now talks about all parties coming together to break the idea of UNP–SJB unity.
At this time, the former SLPP MPs and ministers who were with him during the presidential election are now joining Namal. To hold them under his control, he also speaks about alliances, saying all parties must come together.
Recently, Ranil went to meet Mahinda, to once again ask him to bring “baby Namal” onto the vine bridge (to trap him). Mahinda no longer has a proper political understanding. He, too, will say “yes.” Once, Namal lost both his party and his family when he took Ranil’s hand and went on the vine bridge. If he jumps again into Ranil’s hand, it will be because he is not a political tactician.
If Ranil, Namal, Mahinda, the Rajapaksa family, the SLFP, Udaya, Wimal and all join together, what will happen is that the two-party system will once again be distorted and the JVP will become stronger. The majority of the SLPP does not like Ranil. If the Namal join with Ranil, the SLPP will be destroyed.
To weaken the JVP today, a left-leaning alternative is necessary. That alternative can be created by the SLPP, the SLFP, and Wimal Weerawansa. If they build a left-leaning alternative, the votes taken by the JVP will be cut into pieces, and the benefit will go to the right – that is, to the SJB. The SJB must become strong enough to take that benefit. If the SJB wins, Namal will become Leader of the Opposition, and the JVP will be pushed into third place.
If at the time Namal cuts into the votes the SJB is weak, then depending on the size of the votes he cuts, he could even become first.
That is the winning formula. What Ranil is attempting once again is to bring in a multi-party formula, mess up the winning formula, and thereby strengthen Anura.
