Ranil Wickremesinghe

Vocation

Family

Sri Lankan politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka since 9 January 2015, as Leader of the United National Party since 1994 and the Member of Parliament for Colombo District since 1977. He is also the leader of the United National Front, having been appointed head of the alliance in October 2009. Wickremesinghe also previously served as Prime Minister from 7 May 1993 to 19 August 1994 and 9 December 2001 to 6 April 2004. He was appointed party leader in November 1994 following the assassination of Gamini Dissanayake during the campaign for the 1994 presidential election. On 8 January 2015, Wickremesinghe was appointed as Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena, who had defeated President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential election. Wickremesinghe's coalition alliance, the United National Front for Good Governance, won the 2015 parliamentary election with 106 seats. Although it fell short of an outright majority, Wickremesinghe was re-elected as Prime Minister with over 35 Sri Lanka Freedom Party members joining his cabinet. In 1994, he married Dr Maitree Wickremesinghe, a Senior Lecturer of the Department of English at the University of Kelaniya. Link to Wikipedia biography