Ajantha Wijesinghe Perera () is a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

n academic, scientist, university lecturer,

environmental activist The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...

and politician. She is known for her efforts to end the garbage crisis in Sri Lanka and is nicknamed as Garbage Queen. She founded the National Programme on Recycling of Solid Waste to solve the garbage crisis. She was also a candidate in the

2019 Sri Lankan presidential election Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 16 November 2019. Incumbent president Maithripala Sirisena did not run for a second term. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was the candidate of the Sri Lanka Po ...

s, the only female candidate in the election and the first female presidential candidate since

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

Early life and education

Ajantha Perera completed her higher studies in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and returned to Sri Lanka at the age of 23. She joined the

University of Kelaniya The University of Kelaniya (UoK; , ) is a public university in Sri Lanka. Just outside the municipal limits of Colombo, in the city of Kelaniya, the university has two major institutions and seven faculties. History The University of Kelaniy ...

as an assistant lecturer in

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

and

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

. She joined the

University of Colombo The University of Colombo (informally Colombo University or UoC) is a Public University, public research university located primarily in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is the oldest institution of modern higher education in Sri Lanka. Specialised in t ...

as a senior lecturer in environmental studies, where she also completed her graduation.

Career

Perera has worked as an expert with several ministries in Sri Lanka and in

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. She is currently working to make a recycling management strategy for solid waste in the country. She took an interest in politics in 2019 and contested in the

s as a candidate of the

Socialist Party of Sri Lanka The Socialist Party of Sri Lanka (SP) is a left-wing political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 2006 as a split from the United Socialist Party (part of the Committee for a Workers' International), it was for a time associated with the League for t ...

. She received only 27,572 votes, making her the seventh most-voted candidate. She was the only female candidate in the election and the first female presidential candidate in Sri Lanka since

. In February 2020, she joined the

United National Party The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...

following an invitation suggested by UNP leader

Ranil Wickremesinghe Ranil Wickremesinghe (; ; born 24 March 1949) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the ninth president of Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2024. He has also served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1993–1994, 2001–2004, 2015–2018, 2018-2019 a ...

, as Perera's grandfather had also represented the party before. She contested in the

2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 5 August 2020 to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka's 16th Parliament. 16,263,885 people were eligible to vote in the election, 31.95% of whom were young voters. The incumbent Sri Lanka People's ...

s representing the UNP in the

Colombo district Colombo District ( ''kol̠am̆ba distrikkaya''; ''Koḻumpu Māvaṭṭam'') is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a D ...

, but failed to get elected.

References

1963 births Candidates in the 2019 Sri Lankan presidential election Living people Sri Lankan educators Sri Lankan women educators Sri Lankan women academics Sri Lankan women activists Sri Lankan women scientists Sri Lankan women environmentalists United National Party politicians Sri Lankan environmentalists {{SriLanka-bio-stub