Maithripala Sirisena
Who was Maithripala Sirisena?
Former Health Minister who defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2015 to become Sri Lanka's President, serving until 2019 in a coalition government.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Maithripala Sirisena (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Maithripala Yapa Sirisena was born on September 3, 1951, in Yagoda, Sri Lanka. He served as Sri Lanka's seventh president from January 9, 2015, to November 18, 2019. This made him the first president from the North Central Province and the modern history's first who wasn't part of the country's traditional political elite. He went to Polonnaruwa Rajakeeya Madya Maha Vidyalaya and also studied at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, showing an educational foundation influenced by both local and international learning.
Sirisena started his political career in 1989 when he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Polonnaruwa. He held this seat until 2015 and again from 2020 to 2024. A longtime member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, he advanced to hold several ministerial roles starting in 1994, eventually becoming the party's general secretary and serving as Minister of Health. In November 2014, he left the ruling government and announced himself as the common candidate of a broad opposition coalition, running against his own party leader, President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
His win in the January 2015 presidential election was seen as a surprise. Sirisena gained support from the rural Sinhala majority and the Tamil and Muslim minorities dissatisfied with Rajapaksa's handling of post-war reconciliation and rising tensions among communities. Once in office, Sirisena promised a 100-day reform plan, aiming to strengthen the judiciary and parliament, investigate alleged war crimes from the civil war's end, repeal the eighteenth constitutional amendment, reinstate the seventeenth amendment, and tackle corruption. He appointed United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister, creating a unity government with former rivals.
Sirisena was sworn in as president by Supreme Court judge K. Sripavan at Independence Square in Colombo on January 9, 2015. His presidency often faced challenges due to conflicting political goals within the coalition. In October 2018, he controversially tried to fire Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replace him with former president Rajapaksa, leading to a constitutional crisis. The Supreme Court ruled against his order to dissolve parliament, and Wickremesinghe returned to his position. This incident harmed Sirisena's credibility and his government's reputation for democratic reform.
Sirisena chose not to run in the 2019 presidential election, which ended his term on November 18, 2019, with Gotabaya Rajapaksa's election. He returned to parliament in 2020 and continued to serve until 2024. His political career spans over three decades, guiding Sri Lanka through the post-civil war era and a turbulent period of coalition governance.
Before Fame
Maithripala Sirisena was born in Yagoda in 1951 and grew up in Sri Lanka's North Central Province during a time of significant change following the country's independence. He went to Polonnaruwa Rajakeeya Madya Maha Vidyalaya, which gave him a regional education rather than the typical elite education found in Colombo, setting him apart from many of the nation's political leaders. He also attended the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, which was unusual for Sri Lankan politicians of his era due to its international focus.
Sirisena's political journey began with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, one of the country's main political groups. He focused on building support in Polonnaruwa instead of the capital, earning a following among rural voters and steadily advancing within the party. By the time he entered parliament in 1989, Sri Lanka was dealing with the JVP insurrection in the south and a civil conflict in the north, and these tumultuous times shaped his careful, institution-focused approach to politics.
Key Achievements
- Elected seventh president of Sri Lanka in January 2015, defeating incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa in a widely unexpected electoral outcome.
- Reinstated the seventeenth amendment and repealed the eighteenth amendment, restoring constitutional checks on executive power.
- Formed Sri Lanka's first post-war unity government by appointing opposition UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister.
- Served as Minister of Health and general-secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party prior to the presidency, holding significant roles within government from 1994 onward.
- Represented Polonnaruwa in parliament across multiple terms from 1989 to 2015 and again from 2020 to 2024, maintaining one of the longer continuous parliamentary careers in Sri Lankan politics.
Did You Know?
- 01.Sirisena is the first Sri Lankan president to have come from the North Central Province, breaking a long pattern of leaders drawn from the Western Province elite.
- 02.He studied at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow, an institution associated with Soviet-era literary and cultural education.
- 03.Sirisena's candidacy against Mahinda Rajapaksa was announced just weeks before the January 2015 election, giving his campaign an unusually compressed timeline for a presidential run.
- 04.His 2018 attempt to replace Prime Minister Wickremesinghe with Mahinda Rajapaksa without a parliamentary vote triggered a constitutional crisis that the Supreme Court resolved against him.
- 05.Despite running against his own party's incumbent president in 2015, Sirisena remained technically affiliated with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party throughout his presidency.