Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, the former Sri Lankan Prime Minister passed away on 27th Dec 2016 in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka at the age of 83.
He served as Prime Minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government in 2005 and the Chandrika Kumaratunga government in 2000-2001, when he succeeded then Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
He was a nationalist member of the Sri Lankan Parliament.
He entered politics in 1960, winning the Horana seat in the March General Election as a member of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP). He was appointed the Deputy Minister of Justice in 1970 and served as General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in the 1970s.
He won the Kalutara District seat in the 1994 General Election. He was then appointed as the Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs and Plantation Industries and the Leader of the House in President Chandrika Kumaranatunga’s Cabinet.
