United National Party

                          United National Party

The United National Party, often abbreviated as UNP (Sinhalese: එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය, pronounced Eksath Jathika Pakshaya, Tamil: ஐக்கிய தேசியக் கட்சி), is a political party in Sri Lanka. It currently is the main ruling party in the government of Sri Lanka and is headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe. The UNP is considered to have right-leaning, pro-capitalist, and liberal conservative policies.

At the last legislative elections in Sri Lanka, held on 2 April 2004, the UNP was the leading member of the coalition United National Front, which won 37.8% of the popular vote and 82 out of 225 seats in Parliament. It came in second to the United People's Freedom Alliance, a left-leaning coalition, which won 45.60% of the vote. The Front previously held a majority in parliament from December 2001 until April 2004, when it had 109 seats, with Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister. The UNP had previously been the governing party or in the governing coalition from 1947 to 1956, from 1965 to 1970 and from 1977 to 1994. In total, the UNP governed Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) for 33 of 57 years of its independent history. The UNP also had control of the executive presidency from the presidency's formation in 1978 to 1994.

The UNP is a conservative party to the right of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, favouring a more neo-liberal market-oriented economy. The UNP is also member of the International Democrat Union.

Founding
The UNP was founded on 6 September 1946 by amalgamating three right-leaning pro-dominion parties from the majority Sinhalese community and minority Tamil and Muslim communities. It was founded by Don Stephen Senanayake, who was in the forefront in the struggle for independence from the United Kingdom, having resigned from the Ceylon National Congress because he disagreed with its revised aim of 'the achieving of freedom' from the British Empire.The UNP represented the business community and the landed gentry. However, Senanayake also adopted populist policies that made the party accepted in the grassroots level. Due to his agricultural polcies many landless people were relocated to fertile dry zone which was covered in a thick jungle and new agricultural colonies were built which resulted in Sri Lankan agricultural production rising D.S Senanayake is considered as the "father of the nation".


D.S. Senanayake, the founder of the party
After independnece he refused a Knighthood but maintained good relations with Britain and was a Privy Counsel. He launched major irrigation and hydropwer projects such as the Gal oya project, Udawalawa tank, Senanayaka tank and several other multipurpose projects were launched during this period.He also renoavted historic sites in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. He also played a major role in the Colombo plan 

However his government proceeded to disenfranchise the plantation workers of Indian descent, the Indian Tamils, using the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948 and the Parliamentary Elections Amendment Act of 1949. These measures were intended primarily to undermine the Left electorally.



Split
In 1952 Prime Minister Senanayake died in a riding accident, and his son Dudley became Prime Minister. This irked long standing UNP stalwart S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, a Buddhist nationalist leader known for his centre-left views. Bandaranaike quit the party to found the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) as a balancing force between the UNP and Marxist parties.

During Dudley Senanayake launched several projects to further develop the agricultural sector and was termed “Bath Dun Piya” (father who offered free rice to the nation). Bathalegoda Paddy research centre, Thalawakele Tea research centre, Lunuwila Coconut research centre was created by him to futer develop the agricultural sector and he also founded the Moratuwa University, Ampara Higher Technology Institution and many Technical colleges.C ommencement of the Bhikku University and the declaration of the Poya day as a government holiday were also done during this period. 

In 1953 the UNP attempted to reduce the rice ration and there was a Hartal, which caused Dudley Senanayake to resign. He was replaced by his cousin, Major John Kotelawala who launched seevral major power generation and infrastructure projects such as the Lakshapana hydro power project, Bambalapitiya housing project which provided houses to the homeless, modernizing of the Ratmalana airport, construction of the Kelaniya bridge others including the development of buddhist religious sites.

There was growing disaffection with the UNP particularly because of its support of minority religious groups, most notably Catholics, to the consternation of the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese. Bandaranaike was able to take advantage and lead the SLFP to victory in the 1956 elections. Soon afterwards he passed the controversial Sinhala Only Act, which led to communal clashes in 1958.

The UNP again came to power in 1965 in coalition with the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, the Tamil ethnic Federal Party under Dudley Senanayake, but it lost in a 1970 landslide to the SLFP, which had formed an electoral alliance with Marxist parties known as the United Front.

A bitter leadership battle soon developed between the populist Dudley Senanayake and the more conservative J. R. Jayewardene, a strong supporter of free market policies and a pro-American foreign policy. For the latter, he was called “Yankee Dickey.