| Sri Lanka Freedom Party ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය (Sri Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya) |
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| Sinhala name | ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය |
| Tamil name | இலங்கை சுதந்திரக் கட்சி |
| Leader | Mahinda Rajapaksa |
| Founder | S.W.R.D Bandaranaike |
| Secretary | Maithripala Sirisena |
| Founded | September 2, 1951 |
| Split from | United National Party |
| Preceded by | Sinhala Maha Sabha |
| Headquarters | 301 T. B. Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10 |
| Newspaper | Singhale, Dinakara |
| Ideology | Social Democracy, populism, Sinhalese nationalism[1][2] |
| National affiliation | United People's Freedom Alliance |
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The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය, Tamil: இலங்கை சுதந்திரக் கட்சி) is one of the major political parties in Sri Lanka. It was founded by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in 1951 and,[3] since then, has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena. It first came to power in 1956 and since then has been the predominant party in government on a number of occasions.[4] The party is generally considered as having a centre-left or progressivist economic agenda and is often associated with hard-line nationalist Sinhala parties. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is currently a part of the UPFA (United People's Freedom Alliance) which is the current ruling party of Sri Lanka. The current leader if the Sri Lanka Freedom Party is Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa who is the current president of Sri Lanka.
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After independence the SLFP represented a form of non-revolutionary socialism and a policy of non-alignment with strong ties to socialist countries.
At the last legislative elections, held on 2 April 2004, the party was the leading party in the United People's Freedom Alliance that won 45.6% of the popular vote and 105 out of 225 seats.[5]
After the elections the party became the predominant party in government with Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister.
Following the 17 November presidential elections, the SLFP candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected President of Sri Lanka - winning 50.3% of the votes cast, although having only part support from his split party.[6]