Sri Lankan parliamentarian Sugath Wasantha de Silva has received the 2026 Commonwealth Parliamentary Association New Parliamentarian Award, the government news portal news.lk reported, citing his contribution to inclusive parliamentary democracy and to advancing the rights of persons with disabilities.
The award was presented on 17 September at the 69th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
De Silva is Sri Lanka’s first-ever blind Member of Parliament. He has served as Chair of the Parliamentary Caucus for Persons with Disabilities, and has worked on disability rights, accessibility and inclusive governance.
His nomination was submitted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) – Sri Lanka, rather than by Parliament or by the government — a detail worth noting, since it means the recognition originated with an external elections-assistance organisation observing his work.
What the award is
The CPA runs four Commonwealth Parliamentarian of the Year categories. The New Parliamentarian Award is restricted to a Commonwealth parliamentarian in their first term who has “demonstrated an impressive record of achievement in their first years as a Parliamentarian.”
That criterion fits the recipient closely. De Silva sits as a National List member and entered Parliament in the current term, according to his parliamentary profile, which also gives his date of birth as 26 July 1967.
The conference branding visible in the photograph released with the announcement dates the Cape Town sitting to 13 to 19 September 2026, hosted by the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa — meaning the award was presented in the closing stretch of the conference.
Context
Sri Lanka’s parliamentary engagement with the CPA has been steady through this term, including a delegation visit to Westminster in June.
One caution for readers searching this story: de Silva also represented Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities sessions held alongside the 68th conference in Bridgetown, Barbados, in a previous year. That was a participation, not an award, and the two events are easily confused because the framing is near-identical. The discriminator is the conference number and the host city.
Not reported
news.lk does not give de Silva’s party, name the other nominees or category winners, or say who presented the award. It does not describe what specific legislative or committee work the citation rested on, quote de Silva or any CPA official, or say whether the Speaker or a Sri Lankan delegation was present in Cape Town.
No verified Sri Lankan newsroom had carried the award at the time of writing; it appeared only on the government portal and on aggregator sites, which do not count as independent corroboration.
