The Liberal Democratic Party ( ''Libaral Pakshaya''; ), formerly known as the Liberal Party is a political party in

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, ...

which initially began as a think-tank called the Council for Liberal Democracy. The party was founded in 1981 by Dr. Chanaka Amaratunga, a longstanding member of 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 ...

, which was at the time the ruling party of Sri Lanka. The CLD broke up with the UNP in 1982 over the 1982 referendum, which postponed parliamentary elections for six years. After four years of attempts to promote liberal thinking in Sri Lanka, in particular with regard to constitutional reforms that would promote

devolution Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territori ...

along with separation and reduction of powers at the center, Dr Amaratunga and several of his associates eventually relaunched the CLD as the Liberal Party in February 1987. Though the party never established itself as an electoral success, the Liberal Party continued to have an impact as a think-tank. It contributed seminally to the manifestoes of presidential candidates

Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (; ; ; 17 April 1916 – 10 October 2000), commonly known as Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was a Sri Lankan politician. She was the List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government, world's first fe ...

and

Gamini Dissanayake Dissanayake Mudiyanse Ralahamilage Lionel Gamini Dissanayake, PC (known as Gamini Dissanayake; ,; 20 March 1942 – 24 October 1994) was a prominent Sri Lankan politician, a powerful minister of the United National Party, and Leader of the Op ...

in 1988 and

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

respectively. In 1996, Dr Amaratunga died in a car trash, which led to a significant reduction in party activity. Amaratunga's successor Rajiva Wijesinha contested in the 2000 parliamentary elections and came 6th in a field of 15, a success that served to advance the image of the party. On 19 June 2022, the Liberal Party was renamed as the Liberal Democratic Party. The first congress of the LDP was held on 26 July 2022. Kamal Nissanka is the current leader of the party and Amal Randeniya is the current general secretary.

References

External links

official site
Liberal Lanka
Blog {{Authority control Political parties in Sri Lanka Liberal parties in Asia United People's Freedom Alliance 1987 establishments in Sri Lanka Political parties established in 1987

See also

References

External links