The Freedom People's Alliance (

abbreviated An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

FPA; ''Nidahas Janathā Sandānaya''; ''Cutantira Makkaḷ Kūṭṭaṇi'') was a

political alliance A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who 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, ...

founded in 2023. The alliance consisted of 12 political parties, including the

Sri Lanka Freedom Party The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP; ; ) is a centre-left political party in Sri Lanka. Founded by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1951, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties from the 1950s to the 2010s, serving as the main rival of the c ...

(SFLP), the Uttara Lanka Sabhagaya and the

Freedom People's Congress The Freedom People's Congress ( ''Nidahasa Janatha Sabha'') is a political party in Sri Lanka founded by Dullas Alahapperuma, G. L. Peiris and several other former Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna MPs in 2022. History The party was formed after a f ...

. According to ULS chairman

Wimal Weerawansa Weerasangilige Wimal Weerawansa (, ) (born 7 March 1970) is a Sri Lankan politician, Member of Parliament and current leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF). Weerawansa has served many cabinet positions, including Minister of Industries from ...

, the alliance does not have a single leader; instead, it has a leadership board.

Background

On 31 October 2019, seventeen parties including the

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna The Sri Lanka People's Front (; ), commonly known by its Sinhalese name Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), is a political party in Sri Lanka. It was the ruling party in Sri Lanka from 2019 to 2022 and was the largest party in Parliament of Sr ...

(SLPP) and the SLFP signed an agreement at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

to form the

Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance The Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance (Abbreviation, abbreviated SLPFA; ; ) was a political alliance led by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna formed in 2019. Initially, the alliance consisted of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the Sri Lan ...

(SLPFA), a political alliance led by former President

Mahinda Rajapaksa Mahinda Rajapaksa (; ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the sixth President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the ...

. The alliance supported the SLPP candidate, Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, (; ; born 20 June 1949) was a Sri Lankan politician and military officer who served as the eighth President of Sri Lanka from 18 November 2019 until his Resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resignation on 14 July 202 ...

in the 2019 presidential election. Gotabaya won the election and became

President of Sri Lanka The president of Sri Lanka ( ''Śrī Laṅkā Janādhipati''; ''Ilaṇkai janātipati'') is the head of state and head of government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The president is the chief executive of the union governm ...

, installing Mahinda as

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. The alliance went on to contest the 2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary elections, winning a landslide victory with 145 seats. However, between 2021 and 2022 the Rajapaksa government lost much of its popularity. The ongoing economic crisis continued to deteriorate due to mismanagement by the government. By 2021, Sri Lanka's

debt-to-GDP ratio In economics, the debt-to-GDP ratio is the ratio of a country's accumulation of government debt (measured in units of currency) to its gross domestic product (GDP) (measured in units of currency per year). A low debt-to-GDP ratio indicates that an ...

had risen to 119%. The government had also become highly

nepotistic Nepotism is the act of granting an advantage, privilege, or position to relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In concept it is similar to cr ...

, with another Rajapaksa brother,

Basil Basil (, ; , ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' (, )), also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a hardiness (plants), tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" r ...

, serving as

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

and several more members of the

Rajapaksa family The Rajapaksa family () is a Sri Lankan family that is prominent in politics. It was one of Sri Lanka's most powerful families during Mahinda Rajapaksa's presidency, when many members of the family occupied senior positions in the Sri Lankan s ...

holding prominent positions in the government. On 5 April 2022, amidst street protests against the Rajapaksa government and a brewing

political crisis A cabinet crisis, government crisis or political crisis refers to a situation where an incumbent government is unable to form or function, is toppled through an uprising, or collapses. Political crises may correspond with, cause or be caused by an ...

, the SLPP began losing many of its key allies in the SLPFA, including the SLFP. SLFP leader and former President

Maithripala Sirisena Maithripala Yapa Sirisena (; ; born 3 September 1951) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the seventh president of Sri Lanka from 9 January 2015 to 18 November 2019. Sirisena is Sri Lanka's first president from the North Central Province, S ...

pledged that his party would become politically neutral and would contest future elections separately from the SLPP.

History

On 11 January 2023, the Freedom People's Alliance was ceremoniously launched at the headquarters of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. At the event,

leader Dullas Alahapperuma stated that the group's main objective was to fight

political corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...

in Sri Lanka and safeguard the

rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

, while conceding that the previous support of FPA constituent parties for the Rajapaksa government had been a "mistake". The alliance was launched to contest in the 2023 Sri Lankan local elections, which would ultimately be postponed.

Composition

The alliance currently consists of the following parties:

References

External links

{{Sri Lankan political parties Sri Lanka Freedom Party Jathika Nidahas Peramuna Lanka Sama Samaja Party Communist Party of Sri Lanka Democratic People's Front 2023 establishments in Sri Lanka Political parties established in 2023 Defunct political party alliances in Sri Lanka