Mahinda Rajapaksa
Mahinda Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2004 and 2018 to 2019, and the Minister of Finance from 2005 to 2015 and 2019 to 2021. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kurunegala since 2015.
Some of the key events about Mahinda Rajapaksa
- 1970Elected as the youngest Member of Parliament at the age of 24
- 1989Accused of human rights violations during suppression of the JVP insurrection
- 1994Appointed as the Minister of Labour and Vocational Training
- 2004Became Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
- 2005Elected as the 5th President of Sri Lanka
- 2005Criticized for appointing family members to key government positions
- 2009Led the government to end the 26-year long civil war
- 2009Oversaw military operation that ended civil war but resulted in thousands of civilian casualties
- 2010Re-elected for a second term as President with a landslide victory
- 2010Initiated major infrastructure development projects across the country
- 2010Amended constitution to remove presidential term limits, consolidating power
- 2011Removed the two-term limit for the presidency through a constitutional amendment
- 2012Impeached Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, raising concerns about judicial independence
- 2013Faced allegations of corruption and misuse of public funds
- 2014Accused of failing to investigate war crimes committed during the civil war
- 2015Appointed as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament
- 2018Appointed as Prime Minister in a controversial move, leading to a constitutional crisis
- 2019Appointed as Prime Minister for the second time
- 2019Criticized for security lapses that led to the Easter Sunday bombings
- 2022Forced to resign as Prime Minister amid economic crisis and widespread protests
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