Communist Party of Sri Lanka
Communist Party of Sri Lanka ශ්රී ලංකාවේ කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂය இலங்கை கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சி | ||
---|---|---|
Parliament of Sri Lanka 1 / 225 | ||
Election symbol | ||
Star | ||
Party flag | ||
Website | ||
cpsl.lk | ||
The Communist Party of Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකාවේ කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂය, romanized: Sri Lankavay Komiyunist Pakshaya Tamil: இலங்கை கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சி, romanized: Ilankai Komyunist Katche) is a communist party in Sri Lanka. In the 2004 legislative election, the party was part of the United People's Freedom Alliance that won 45.6% of the popular vote and 105 out of 225 seats.
History
Part of a series on |
Communist parties |
---|
The CPSL was founded as the Communist Party of
The USP and then the CPC was initially led by Dr. S. A. Wickramasinghe.
In 1952 Wickremesinghe's wife, the English-born
In 1963 the Communist Party, Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna formed the United Left Front (1963). The ULF broke down in 1964 when the then Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike offered ministerial posts to LSSP and the CP.
In the mid-1960s the
In 1968, the CP joined the LSSP and the SLFP in the United Front. In the 1970 government, Pieter Keuneman became Minister of Housing and Construction and B. Y. Tudawe, Deputy Minister of Education. However, one faction of the party, led by S. A. Wickremasinghe and Indika Gunawardena, maintained a line of critical support for the government.
After the general election of 1977, for the first time in half a century, the CPSL found itself without parliamentary representation, receiving about 2% of the vote. However, after a subsequent election petition, Sarath Muttetuwegama was elected to the Kalawana seat in a by-election.
Later CPSL joined the
The CPSL had one member of parliament in 2004, party general secretary D.E.W. Gunasekara. Gunasekara expected to become the speaker of the Sri Lankan parliament but lost by a handful of votes. Gunasekara was then sworn in as the Minister for Constitutional Affairs.[3][4]
During the 2020 Parliamentary elections, the CPSL put forward two candidates, Mahesh Almedia in Colombo and Weerasumana Weerasinghe in Matara, under the SLPP's Pohottuwa symbol. Dr G. Weerasinghe was nominated for the party's National List. Weerasumana was the only candidate to successfully enter Parliament with 77,968 preferential votes.
Gunasekera stepped down as General Secretary of the CPSL on 30 August 2020. Dr G. Weerasinghe was unanimously elected as the new General Secretary by the Central Committee.[5]
Party organization
The youth wing of CPSL is the Communist Youth Federation. CYF is a member organization of the World Federation of Democratic Youth.
Allegations
The CPSL and other Leftist parties were framed by the J R Jayawardane government for instigating 1983 Black July pogroms against the Tamil people. The party was banned and leaders including D.E.W. Gunasekera were imprisoned for over a year. The ban was lifted due to the lack of evidence for the charges and intervention from the Soviet embassy. The ban on the JVP and NSSP stayed the same.
Publications
Aththa (Truth) is the CPSL's flagship Sinhala newspaper,[6] which was renowned for its high standard of journalism, progressive editorials and Sinhala prose.
The English organ of the CPSL was the Forward weekly.[7]
Electoral history
See also
References
External links |