Democratic Party (Sri Lanka)

Democratic Party
Prajathantravadhi Pakshaya
Sinhala name ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පක්ෂය
Founder Sarath Fonseka
Leader Sarath Fonseka
Founded 1 April 2013 (2013-04-01)
Ideology Liberalism
National affiliation United National Front for Good Governance (2016 - present)
Colors      Purple
Parliament of Sri Lanka
1 / 225
Sri Lankan Provincial Councils
17 / 455
Election symbol
Flaming Torch
Website
www.democraticparty.lk

Democratic Party is a political party in Sri Lanka led by former army chief Sarath Fonseka.[1] It was registered by the election commission of Sri Lanka in March 2013.[2]

2013 to 2014 Provincial Council Elections

The Democratic Party contested for Provincial council election held on 21 September 2013 for North, North Western & Central Provincial councils. They secured 3 & 2 seats of North western and central councils obtaining 46,114 and 45,239 votes form respective provinces. They surprisingly emerged as third in both councils over JVP. However, they were unable to garner any support from North PC where they obtained only 170 votes.

Democratic Party contested for provincial council elections held on 29 March 2014 and secured 12 seats of two councils. In Southern council 109,032 votes obtaining 3 seats while in western province they got 203,767 votes obtaining 9 seats.

Democratic party got defeated badly in this provisional council election held on 20 September 2014. They could garner only 6076 votes from whole province which was 0.89%. This is the biggest setback for newly established party.

2015 Presidential election

The Democratic Party has declared its support for the opposition common candidate Maithripala Sirisena. With the decision taken some appointed members left the party including Jayantha Ketagoda (MP).

2015 Parliamentary election

Party leader field marshal Sarath Fonseka has announced that he would contest alone for parliamentary election scheduled on 17 August 2015. Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka contested from Colombo district. Surprisingly DP has faced a massive slide in the election in which they could garner only 28587 votes all over the country resulting in no representation in the 8th parliament of Sri Lanka.

2016 United National Front

The party joined governing United National Front signing an MOU with Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe on 3 February 2016.[3]

On the 9 February Sarath Fonseka took oath as a Member of Parliament for the seat vacated by the death of M. K. A. D. S. Gunawardana [4] giving the party a seat in the Parliament

On 30 July Sarath Fonseka obtained membership of United National Party and Democratic party was dissolved accordingly.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Sri Lanka's former army chief registers a new political party". colombopage. 12 March 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-22.
  2. ↑ "Fonseka's party wins recognition". The Hindu. 1 April 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-22.
  3. ↑ http://www.dailymirror.lk/104939/SF-joins-UNF-
  4. ↑ "Fonseka takes oath as MP". Ada Derrana. 9 February 2016.
  5. ↑ "Democratic Party To Be Dissolved?". 28 June 2016.


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