14th Parliament of Sri Lanka


The 14th Parliament of Sri Lanka was a meeting of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, with the membership determined by the results of the 2010 parliamentary election held on 8 April and 20 April 2010. The parliament met for the first time on 22 April 2010 and was dissolved on 26 June 2015.

Election

The 14th parliamentary election was held on 8 April and 20 April 2010. The incumbent United People's Freedom Alliance secured a landslide victory in the elections, buoyed by its achievement of ending the 26 year Sri Lankan Civil War by defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May 2009. The UPFA won a large majority in parliament, obtaining 144 seats, an increase of 39 since the 13th parliamentary election. The main opposition United National Front won 60 seats, a decline of 22. The minority Tamil party Tamil National Alliance won 14 seats, a decline of 8, and the Democratic National Alliance, contesting for the first time, won 7 seats.

Results

The new parliament was sworn in on 22 April 2010. Chamal Rajapaksa, the brother of President Rajapaksa, was elected Speaker, Piyankara Jayaratne as the Deputy Speaker and Murugesu Chandrakumar as the Deputy Chairman of Committees. Ranil Wickremesinghe was recognised as Leaders of the Opposition. John Amaratunga was appointed as the Chief Opposition Whip.
On 2 May 2010 the government appointed Nimal Siripala de Silva as the Leader of the House and Dinesh Gunawardena as the Chief Government Whip.
Chandima Weerakkody was elected Deputy Speaker on 23 November 2010 after his predecessor Piyankara Jayaratne was made a minister.

Government

On 21 April 2010 President Rajapaksa appointed D. M. Jayaratne as the new Prime Minister. The rest of the government, comprising 36 Ministers and 39 Deputy Ministers were sworn in on 23 April 2010. President Rajapaksa has retained control of the important ministries of Defence, Finance & Planning, Highways, and Ports & Aviation.
Mervyn Silva resigned as Deputy Minister of Mass Media & Information on 5 May 2010. A further four Ministers and five Deputy Ministers were sworn in on 5 May 2010. Mervyn Silva was appointed as the new Deputy Minister of Highways. 85 UPFA MPs were now part of the government.
Mervyn Silva was dismissed from his ministerial post and suspended from the SLFP on 10 August 2010. However, a subsequent SLFP disciplinary cleared him of all charges and on 8 September 2010 he was reappointed to his ministerial post.
On 22 November 2010, three days after Rajapaksa was sworn in for his second term, a new government was sworn in. A number of opposition MPs who had defected to the UPFA were rewarded with ministerial posts. A further Minister and three Deputy Ministers were sworn in on 25 November 2010 95 UPFA MPs were now part of the government.
S. M. Chandrasena resigned as Minister of Agrarian Services & Wildlife with effect from 26 September 2012. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Agrarian Services & Wildlife on 5 October 2012.
President Rajapaksa carried out a cabinet re-shuffle on 28 January 2013, appointing some new ministers and deputy ministers. 96 UPFA MPs were now part of the government. Nine new deputy ministers were appointed on 10 October 2013. 105 UPFA MPs were now part of the government.
Deputy Economic Development Minister S. M. Chandrasena was appointed as Cabinet Minister for Special Projects on 23 November 2013. Palani Digambaran and Praba Ganesan were appointed deputy ministers on 21 August 2014. V. Radhakrishnan was appointed deputy minister on 9 October 2014.
Maithripala Sirisena defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2015 presidential election after which he appointed a UNP dominated national government.

Legislation

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Light shading indicates majority ; dark shading indicates two-thirds majority ; no shading indicates minority government.

Deaths and resignations

The 14th parliament saw the following deaths and resignations: