Bio

Sajith Premadasa, the son of former President Ranasighe Premadasa, is the current Opposition Leader of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and the Leader of the main opposition party, Samagi Jana Balawegaya. Sajith schooled at St. Thomas Preparatory College and Royal College, after which he sat for his O/L and A/L examinations at London’s Mill Hill School. He excelled at studies and extracurriculars, winning the A/L prize for politics and business studies while being a prefect and captaining the First XI Cricket Team of Mill Hill School.

He completed his Bachelor’s degree from the London School of Economics, specializing in Economics, Politics, and International Relations. After graduating, he interned at the US Senate, working in its Foreign Relations Committee under Senator Larry Pressler while reading for his Master of Science degree at the University of Maryland. Sajith had to abandon his studies and return home to Sri Lanka when his father was tragically assassinated in 1993.

In 1994, following the footsteps of his late father, he decided to take the plunge into grassroots politics when he was made the District Organizer for Hambantota for the United National Party. He started his political career by launching the project ‘Janasuwaya’ to alleviate poverty in the Hambantota District, where he worked for years at the grassroots level. In the 2000 Parliamentary Elections, he secured the highest number of preferential votes in the district and the highest vote percentage in the country and entered the parliament for the first time. United National Party assumed office a year later, and Sajith was appointed Deputy Minister of Health. He secured the highest percentage of preferential votes out of all United National Party candidates for four general elections in a row. In the decade that followed his being first elected to the parliament, Sajith rose to be recognized as a people-friendly political leader. He was elevated to the position of Deputy leader of the United National Party in 2011.

The Presidential election of January 2015 brought United National Party to power, and he was installed as the Minister of Housing & Samurdhi Affairs. A subsequent reshuffle of portfolios saw him assuming the Minister of Housing & Construction position. In this position, he revitalized his father’s Model Villages program and set himself an ambitious target of providing ‘Shelter for All’ by 2025. He also initiated several innovations in the Human Settlements Development Sector, including the revision of the outdated National Housing Policy. Sajith also initiated the modernization of the construction industry in Sri Lanka to meet the country’s development needs. These initiatives included preparing a ‘National Construction policy’ for the first time in the country and expanding the training of a skilled national construction workforce.

Through a tumultuous nomination process, Sajith was named the candidate from the UNP-led New Democratic Front for the 2019 Presidential Elections, in which he managed to secure 5,564,239 votes. Subsequently, he was appointed the Leader of the Opposition of Sri Lanka. In 2020, he formed a new party, ‘Samagi Jana Balawegaya,’ with the allegiances of many prominent anti-corruption and pro-democratic political figures. Samagi Jana Balawegaya defeated the ages-old United National Party and became the main opposition of Sri Lanka in 2020, retaining Sajith Premadasa as the Opposition Leader of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, where he continues his duties to date.

An avid lover of nature and the environment, Sajith is currently reading for his Master of Science in Environmental Sciences at the Open University of Sri Lanka.

Housing

● Building over 600 model villages across Sri Lanka to provide ‘Shelter for All’ ● Providing low-interest housing loans to over 142,000 families ● Housing welfare programs from which over 10,000 families benefited ● Low interest loans and donations for over 5,000 families with members affected with kidney issues ● Providing donations in terms of building-material to aid the construction of the houses of over 110,000 families. ● Low interest loans and donations for over 1420 families of tri-forces veterans ● Aiding to rebuild the North and the East via several programs that made donations to aid build houses for over 4,500 families ● Joint low-interest housing loan schemes with People’s Bank and National Savings Back which benefitted over 18,000 families ● Aiding train and certify over 30,000 construction workers via the ‘Shilpa Saviya’ program, and kickstarting their careers by providing them equipment ● Doubling the number of certified trainees for building construction equipment operating, via NVQ programs

Education (Private and Donor Funded ‘Sakwala’ program)1

● Donating school buses worth over LKR 389,200,000 to 80 schools via the ‘Sakwala’ program ● Empowering 40 schools with initiating Smart Classrooms and providing them with necessary equipment worth over LKR 36,366,150 via the ‘Sakwala’ program

Healthcare (Private and Donor Funded ‘Husmak’ program)2

● Providing lifesaving medical equipment worth LKR 171,966,900 to 56 hospitals islandwide via the ‘Husmak’ program ● Upon the request of then PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, donating essential lifesaving drugs worth LKR 15,600,000, which were in shortage due to the economic crisis, to the healthcare system of Sri Lanka.

Religious (Private and Donor Funded ‘Sasunata Arunak’ program)

● Building schoolbuildings and classes for over 1000 Buddhist Sunday Schools across Sri Lanka ● Building over 1,000 stupas across the 25 districts of Sri Lanka ● Renovatng the historical sites of Mihinthalaya, Deeghavapiya, Thuparamaya, Abhayagiriya and Mirisawetiya ● Initiating a program to build houses for homeless parents of young Buddhist monks, parallel to the ‘Shelter for All’ program

Footnotes

1. Sakwala - Sakwala is an initiative by Sajith Premadasa which empowers Sri Lankan schools and schoolchildren with smart classes and computers in order to gear them up for the digital revolution.

2. Husmak - Samagi Jana Balawegayen Husmak, is an initiative by Sajith Premadasa and the Opposition of Sri Lanka – Samagi Jana Balawegaya. Husmak provides essential and lifesaving medical equipment to Sri Lankan hospitals.