The United National Party marks the 80th anniversary of its founding on Sunday, with a commemorative programme held under the patronage of party leader and former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Ada Derana reported.
The anniversary events were scheduled for 9.00 a.m. at Sirikotha, the party’s head office in Pita Kotte, the UNP said.
Founded in 1946
The UNP was formed on 6 September 1946 at the Palm Court Mansion in Colombo, in the final phase of British rule and less than eighteen months before independence.
D.S. Senanayake was elected the party’s first leader and H.W. Amarasuriya was appointed Secretary. Sir Razik Fareed, a prominent Muslim leader, and J.R. Jayewardene were elected Co-Treasurers.
The founders chose green as the party’s official colour and the elephant — the largest land animal — as its symbol. Both remain in use.
Eight decades of leadership
Ada Derana lists the party’s leaders since 1946 as D.S. Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake, John Kotelawala, J.R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa. Following Premadasa’s death, Wickremesinghe assumed the leadership and has held it since — a tenure now spanning more than three decades and by some distance the longest in the party’s history.
Four of those leaders went on to serve as Prime Minister or President, and the party governed Sri Lanka for much of the post-independence period.
An anniversary in reduced circumstances
The milestone arrives with the UNP at a low ebb in electoral terms, and the party has spent much of this year on organisational repair. Wickremesinghe chaired a management committee meeting on rebuilding and political alliances in June, and the party has been working through a formal process on realignment.
It has also been drawn into the political fallout from a run of corruption arrests. The UNP’s own general secretary, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, was arrested and remanded in August. On Friday the party condemned the remanding of SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa, saying arrests would not deter public acceptance of politicians — a statement notable for coming from the UNP before the SLPP itself had issued one.
Update — rival parties attended
The commemoration went ahead on Sunday morning at Sirikotha under Wickremesinghe’s patronage, Ada Derana reported after the event, with proceedings beginning on his arrival.
Representatives of four other parties attended as invited guests: the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the United Republic Front — a cross-party turnout that included both the SJB, formed by the 2020 split from the UNP, and the SLPP, whose MP Namal Rajapaksa the UNP had defended two days earlier.
Wickremesinghe used the occasion to accuse the government of moving against lawyers, doctors and Buddhist monks and of working to destroy the opposition.
