United People’s Freedom Alliance
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United People's Freedom Alliance
එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය ஐக்கிய மக்கள் சுதந்திரக் கூட்டணி |
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| Abbreviation | UPFA |
| Leader | Maithripala Sirisena |
| Secretary | Mahinda Amaraweera |
| Founder | Chandrika Kumaratunga |
| Founded | 20 January 2004 |
| Headquarters | 301 T. B. Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10, Sri Lanka |
| Youth wing |
Nidahas Tharuna Peramuna |
| Ideology | Democratic socialism |
| Political position | Centre-left to Left-wing |
| Parliament of Sri Lanka |
95 / 225
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| Election symbol | |
Betel Leaf
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Nidahas Tharuna Peramuna
(formerly the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Youth Federation)
The United People's Freedom Alliance, often abbreviated as UPFA (Sinhalese: එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය Eksath Janathā Nidahas Sandānaya, Tamil: ஐக்கிய மக்கள் சுதந்திரக் கூட்டணி), is a political alliance in Sri Lanka founded by former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2004. The alliance has been led by its senior partner, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and enjoyed a majority in the Sri Lankan parliament between 2004 and 2015 under both Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapakse. The 2015 parliamentary elections saw the alliance undergo a split, with loyalists of the Sirisena faction forming a coalition government with the United National Party. The alliance is generally regarded as being representative of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism.
The current leader of the UPFA is Maithripala Sirisena, with Mahinda Amaraweera functioning as general secretary.
The United People's Freedom Alliance was born out of a memorandum of understanding signed by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in 2004. The agreement was the result of a year's negotiations between the two parties, and broadly outlined common goals in the areas of the economy, ethnic harmony, democracy, culture, and foreign policy, areas in which the two parties shared common disagreements with the ruling United National Party (UNP)-led United National Front in power at the time. The agreement did not go into specifics on how differences between the two parties would be resolved, particularly in the area of their differing visions of the solution to the country's ethnic problem. Fundamentally, the memorandum was used as a coalition declaration for the upcoming parliamentary elections, and was a revisiting of the unsuccessful coalition attempt before the 2001 parliamentary elections. The coalition was, in effect, an attempt to oust the ruling UNP based on negative public opinion on its handling of the Sri Lankan Civil War, both in terms of its approach to negotiating with the LTTE and a perceived free hand given to Western interference in the country's democracy through the Norwegian-led peace process. The name of the alliance is believed to have been heavily influenced by the JVP, who insisted it be named Eksath Janathā Nidahas Sandānaya (Sinhala: United National People's Alliance) such that it preceded the Eksath Jāthika Pakshaya (Sinhala: United National Party) on the Sinhala ballot paper. The influence of the JVP (and later the Jathika Hela Urumaya) has been identified as one of the reasons for the nationalist leanings of the alliance.
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