President’s Counsel Rienzie Arseculeratne, the current Deputy President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, will contest the association’s presidency for 2027/28.
He has agreed to stand at the request of a large number of senior and junior members of the Bar, the Daily Mirror reported. Hiru News carried the same announcement.
The term of the incumbent president, Attorney-at-Law Rajeev Amarasuriya — re-elected uncontested for 2026/27 — concludes in 2027.
A career on both sides of the courtroom
Members who urged him to run point to a record spanning nearly three decades as a prosecutor and senior Law Officer of the State, followed by more than two decades at the unofficial Bar.
Arseculeratne began his career in the Attorney General’s Department, rising to Additional Solicitor General and head of the criminal branch. He was appointed President’s Counsel in 1998. During that period he also served as Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
After retiring from the department in 2003 he has practised in criminal and public law. From 2015 to 2018 he was Chairman of Hatton National Bank PLC. He has been the BASL’s Deputy President since 2025.
The timing
The announcement lands while the Bar is engaged on several fronts. Supporters cited questions of the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and proposed legislation affecting fundamental rights as the backdrop to his candidacy — an unusually direct framing for what is normally an internal professional election.
Those are live issues. The BASL has been publicly involved in the debate over the Prevention of Organised Crimes Bill and the Protection of the State from Terrorism Bill, on which the government said on Friday it would consult the public before proceeding, and in the controversy over judicial transfers that the Justice Minister addressed this week.
A note on the spelling of his name
The two filings render the name differently: the Daily Mirror gives “Rienzie Arseculeratne”, while Hiru’s English headline gives “Rienzi Arsakularatne”. This article uses the Daily Mirror’s form, which matches the spelling used in Sri Lankan law reports and in the Bar Association’s own records. Both are recorded here.
Not reported
Neither filing says when the election will be held, whether anyone else has declared, or whether Arseculeratne will be opposed. Neither carries a statement from Arseculeratne himself, from the BASL as an institution, or from the incumbent president. No platform or set of policy commitments is reported.
