Democratic Party (Sri Lanka)

Democratic Party of Sri Lanka
ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පක්ෂය
FounderSarath Fonseka
LeaderSarath Fonseka
Founded1 April 2013 (2013-04-01)
Dissolved30 July 2016 (2016-07-30)
Merged intoUnited National Party
Headquarters619, Waragoda Road, Kelaniya
IdeologyLiberalism
Political positionCentre
Election symbol
Flaming Torch

Democratic Party was a political party in Sri Lanka led by former army chief Sarath Fonseka.[1] It was registered by the election commission of Sri Lanka in March 2013.[2]

2013 Provincial Council Elections

The Democratic Party contested for Provincial council elections held on 21 September 2013 for North, North Western & Central Provincial councils. They secured 3 & 2 seats of North western and Central Provincial councils obtaining 46,114 and 45,239 votes form respective provinces. They surprisingly emerged as third in both councils over JVP. However, they were unable to garner any support from North Provincial council where they obtained only 170 votes.

2014 Provincial Council Elections

Democratic Party contested for provincial council elections held on 29 March 2014 and secured 12 seats of two councils. In Southern council 75,532 votes obtaining 3 seats while in western province they got 203,767 votes obtaining 9 seats.

Democratic party got defeated badly in the Uva Provisional council election held on 20 September 2014. They could garner only 6076 votes from whole province which was 0.89%. This was a biggest setback for the newly established party.

2015 Presidential election

The Democratic Party has declared its support for the opposition common candidate Maithripala Sirisena. With the decision taken some appointed members left the party including Jayantha Ketagoda (MP).

2015 Parliamentary election

Party leader field marshal Sarath Fonseka announced he would contest alone for parliamentary election scheduled on 17 August 2015. Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka contested from the Colombo district. Surprisingly DP faced a massive slide in the election in which they could garner only 28,587 votes across the country, resulting in no representation in the 8th parliament of Sri Lanka.[3]

2016 United National Front

The party joined governing United National Front for Good Governance signing an MOU with Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe on 3 February 2016.[4]

On 9 February Sarath Fonseka took oath as a member of parliament for the seat vacated by the death of M. K. A. D. S. Gunawardana[5] giving the party a seat in the Parliament.

On 30 July Sarath Fonseka obtained membership of United National Party and Democratic party was dissolved accordingly.[6]

Electoral history

Sri Lanka Parliamentary Elections
Election year Votes Vote % Seats won +/– Government
2015 28,587 0.26%
0 / 225
 Steady Not in Parliament
2024 283 0.00%
0 / 225
 Steady Not in Parliament

References

  1. ^ "Sri Lanka's former army chief registers a new political party". colombopage. 12 March 2013. Archived from the original on 14 March 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  2. ^ "Fonseka's party wins recognition". The Hindu. 1 April 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  3. ^ "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka: Final Report, Parliamentary Elections 17 August 2015" (PDF). European Union Election Observation Mission: 45.
  4. ^ "SF joins UNF – Breaking News | Daily Mirror".
  5. ^ "Fonseka takes oath as MP". Ada Derrana. 9 February 2016.
  6. ^ "Democratic Party To Be Dissolved?". 28 June 2016. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2016.


Stub icon

This article about a Sri Lankan political party is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.