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She was then unseated by Senanayake in the 1965 election and became Leader of the Opposition, before winning a large majority in 1970 due to a cleverly structured election alliance with rival Marxist parties.
Apr 13, 2024 · After her husband, who became prime minister in 1956, was assassinated in 1959, she was induced by his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to become the party’s leader. The SLFP won a decisive victory at the general election in July 1960, and she became prime minister.
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Sirimavo was raised in a wealthy Sinhalese family. In 1940, she married the politician Solomon Bandaranaike, leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Prime Minister between 1956 and his assassination in 1959. At the request of senior party members, Mrs Bandaranaike accepted the leadership of the party and the following year won the general electio...
A staunch socialist, Bandaranaike continued her husband's policies of nationalizing key sectors of the economy, such as banking and insurance. Unfortunately, she was on a roller-coaster ride from the moment she took office and within a year of her 1960 election victory she declared a state of emergency. This followed a civil disobedience campaign b...
Known to her fellow Sri Lankans as "Mrs. B," she could skillfully use popular emotion to boost her support, frequently bursting into tears as she pledged to continue her dead husband's policies. He, Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, was shot dead by a man dressed as a Buddhist monk in 1959. Her opponents and critics called her the "weeping widow...
By 1976, Bandaranaike was more respected abroad than at home. Her great triumph that year was to become chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement and host the largest heads of state conference the country had ever seen. Despite her high standing internationally, she was losing Sri Lankan support rapidly amid allegations of corruption and against the bac...
Bandaranaike is mainly remembered for policies that alienated that Tamil minority and fueled the confict that has waged in Sri Lanka since 1983. However, she can not solely be blamed for causing the civil war, since her policies were widely supported by a majority of the population through the electoral ballot. The wish to promote and strengthen he...
Liswood, Laura A. Women World Leaders: Fifteen Great Politicians Tell Their Stories. London: Pandora, 1995. ISBN 9780044409045Manor, James. The Expedient Utopian: Bandaranaike and Ceylon. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1989. ISBN 0521371910Opfell, Olga S. Women Prime Ministers and Presidents. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co, 1993. ISBN 9780899507903Jun 8, 2018 · Sirimavo Bandaranaike (born 1916) became the first woman prime minister in the world when she was chosen to head the Sri Lankan Freedom Party government in 1960, following the assassination of her husband. She pursued policies of nonalignment abroad and democratic socialism at home.
Jul 11, 2016 · Bandaranaike served a third term as prime minister (a role which by then was primarily ceremonial, as a result of a constitutional change) from 1994 until her resignation in August 2000; she died...
- Elizabeth Nix
- 3 min
When her husband became prime minister, Bandaranaike was active in Ceylon's main political women's organization, the Lanka Mahila Samiti; after his assassination (1959), she succeeded him as leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), then as prime minister (1960–65 and 1970–77).
Apr 17, 2023 · The legacy of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike serves as a reminder of the kind of leadership Sri Lanka needs today. by Sri Lanka Guardian. April 17, 2023. 3 mins read. File Photo: Moscow State ...
