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Ranil Wickremesinghe
Sign in to saveAlso known as Ranil Wickramasinghe
9th President of Sri Lanka from July 2022 to September 2024
Ranil Wickremesinghe is a Sri Lankan political figure who served as the country's president from July 2022 to September 2024, taking office during a period of significant economic and political crisis in the nation. His presidency is notable because it occurred at a critical time when Sri Lanka was facing severe financial difficulties and social unrest that had forced his predecessor to flee the country.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Sri Lanka
- Place of birth
- Colombo
- Spouse
- Maitree Wickramasinghe
- Occupation
- lawyer
- Educated at
- Royal College, Colombo
- Political party
- United National Party
- Languages spoken
- Sinhala
- Native language
- Sinhala
- Official website
- www.president.gov.lk
- Image
- Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, at Hyderabad House, in New Delhi on November 23, 2017.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- date of birth
- 1949-03-24
- Commons category
- Ranil Wickremesinghe
- P10632
- Ranil Wickremesinghe
- affiliation string
- Office of the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Ranil Wickremesinghe (Sinhala: රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ; Tamil: ரணில் விக்கிரமசிங்க; born 24 March 1949) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the ninth president of Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2024. He has also served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1993–1994, 2001–2004, 2015–2018, 2018-2019 and in 2022. Wickremesinghe has held several ministerial roles, including Minister of Finance, Minister of Defence, Minister of Technology and Minister of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment. Wickremesinghe has led the United National Party (UNP) since 1994. He is also the eighth executive president of Sri Lanka, a role established by the 1977 constitutional amendment that expanded presidential powers.
Born into a political family, Wickremesinghe graduated from the University of Ceylon and qualified as a lawyer from the Ceylon Law College in 1972. He entered politics in the mid-1970s with the UNP, first being elected to Parliament in 1977. Over the years, he held various ministerial positions, including Minister of Foreign Affairs, Youth Affairs and Employment, and Industry, Science and Technology. He first became prime minister in 1993 following the assassination of President Ranasinghe Premadasa.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ranil Wickremesinghe” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.