Liberal Party of Sri Lanka

The Liberal Party began as a think tank called the ‘Council for Liberal Democracy’ the first institution to criticize the all-embracing statism of the colonial and immediate post-colonial periods. In espousing free economic policies together with wide-ranging political freedoms, the Council, and then the Liberal Party, opposed to both the authoritarian crony capitalism of the United National Party and the socialism of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Both major parties are now, in theory, in favor of the wide freedoms, but to ensure that these are understood and entrenched, there is still a need of coherent liberal activism.

2010 is a year of major elections for Sri Lanka, with the Presidential elections held in January. This made an effect that all parties rallied around either of the two contenders. The Liberal Party continued to support then incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse. After the victory at the parliamentary elections that followed in April, the party won a slot in the national list of the winning United Peoples Freedom Alliance Coalition and Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha was nominated as an MP from the national list after the elections.

The Party has chaired the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats in 2010, and the party has held delegations to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, as well as to meetings of the Liberal International, the Italian Alliance of Democrats and the Liberal Democrat Conference in Britain. In Sri Lanka the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats continued discussion with all the parties on reconciliation, and in 2011 Professor Rajiva was appointed Advisor on Reconciliation to the President, who also put him on the government team to negotiate with the Tamil National Alliance. Liberal volunteers contribute to the Reconciliation website: www.peaceinsrilanka.org and the Youth Forum blog: www.reconciliationyouth.forum.com. The United Kingdom membership tweets as UKLPSL and has a remarkable number of followers including the Australian Prime Minister. It helps to maintain Professor Wijesinha’s personal blog, www.rajivawijesina.wordpress.com. The party contested a few local elections in its own in 2011, and was able to return two members to the Ridigama Pradeshiya Sabha in Kurunagala District.

Liberal Party of Sri Lanka held its annual congress on the 17^th of December 2015 and following members were elected as office bearers in the national committee.