Ranil Shriyan Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as Sri Lanka’s Prime minister for the fourth time on Friday August 21st 2015. T Sixty –six year old Ranil as he is popularly known was born on March 24th 1949.

He has served as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka since 9 January 2015, as Leader of the United National Party since 1994 and as a Member of Parliament since 1977. He is also the leader of the United National Front for good governance(UNFGG)

Wickremesinghe also previously served as Prime Minister from 7 May 1993 to 19 August 1994 and 9 December 2001 to 6 April 2004. He was appointed party leader in November 1994 following the assassination of late Gamini Dissanayake in 1994 Presidential Election.

On 8 January 2015, Wickremesinghe was appointed as Prime Minister by President Sirisena after winning the 2015 Presidential Election which saw the defeat of president Mahinda Rajapaksa after he called early election two years before his term was to end.

Following the 2015 Parliamentary election Ranil’s coalition alliance the United National Front for Good Governance won the parliamentary election and became the single largest party with 106 althought it was a hung parliament Wickremesinghe was sworn in as an elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka again after serving 8 months as an “unelected” Prime Minister.

Ranil is the second son of Esmond and Nalini Wickremasinghe. Wickremesinghe was educated at Royal College, Colombo Wickremasinghe entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Ceylon, Colombo campus (now University of Colombo). After graduation he completed the law exams at the Sri Lanka Law College and took oaths as an advocate in 1972.

In 1994, he married Dr Maitree Wickremesinghe, a Senior Lecturer of the Department of English at the University of Kelaniya. She is the only daughter of Senevi B. Wickremasinghe and Shiranee Wickremasinghe (née Bandaratilaka) of Nawala, Koswatte.

In 2014 Wickremesinghe was the recipient of a Robert E. Wilhelm Fellowship by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.