Vikramabahu Karunaratne

Vikramabahu Karunaratne
Left Front candidate for President of Sri Lanka
Election date 26 January 2010
Opponent(s)	Mahinda Rajapaksa (UPFA), Sarath Fonseka and others
Incumbent	Mahinda Rajapaksa
Personal details
Born	(1943-03-08) March 8, 1943 Lunugala, Badulla District, Uva Province, British Ceylon
Nationality	Sri Lankan
Political party	Left Front
Other political affiliations	Nava Sama Samaja Party
Relations	Mudiyanse Karunarathne (father) Vimala Kothalawale (mother)
Alma mater	Ananda College University of Ceylon University of Cambridge
Occupation	Academic

Vikramabahu Karunaratne (also spelt Wickramabahu Karunaratne, Wickremabahu Karunarathna) is a Sri Lankan politician and he contested for the Sri Lankan presidential election.

Early life

Karunarathne was born on 8 March 1943 in Lunugala in present day south-east Sri Lanka. Both his parents were teachers. He received his primary education at Ananda Shasthralaya, Mathugama before going onto Ananda College, Colombo for his secondary education. Thereafter he went to the University of Ceylon from where he graduated with a first class degree in electrical engineering. He received a Commonwealth scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge from which he received a doctorate in 1970. He returned to Ceylon and started an academic career.

Politics

Karunaratne became politically active very early in his life, joining the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in 1962 whilst an undergraduate at the University of Ceylon. He was elected to the LSSP's Central Committee in 1972 but fell out with the party's leadership over their support for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and its 1972 Republican Constitution. He was expelled from the LSSP.

In 1977 Karunaratne joined with other former members of the LSSP, including Vasudeva Nanayakkara, to form the Nava Sama Samaja Party (New Social Equality Party).

In 1978 he was arrested in Kandy for attempting to put up protest slogans against the President prior to his visit to Kandy in 1978. He was released without charge after a few months of detention, and the University of Peradeniya which suspended him from service soon after his arrest reinstated him after a rather delayed inquiry. He chose to resign from the University after he collected his back pay.

The Sri Lankan government proscribed the NSSP, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CP) after the Black July anti-Tamil riots of 1983.^[1] Karunaratne, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Rohana Wijeweera and other left-wing politicians went into hiding until 1985 when the proscription was lifted.^[1]

In 1987 the NSSP joined with the LSSP, CP and Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya (SLMP) to form the United Socialist Alliance.^[2] Karunaratne was injured on 2 December 1988 when a JVP gang attacked an election rally at Kadawatte near Colombo in support of the SLMP's presidential canididate Oswin Abeygunasekara.^[3] The JVP attacked numerous left-wing politicians and their supporters during its second insurrection.

In 1998 the NSSP joined with the National Democratic Movement, New Democratic Party and United Socialist Party (a breakaway faction of the NSSP) to form the New Left Front (NLF).^[4] The USP has since left the NLF but the Democratic Left Front (another breakaway faction of the NSSP formed by Vasudeva Nanayakkara) has joined the NLF. Since 2004 the NLF has restyled itself as Left Front.

Presidential candidate

On 26 November 2009 it was announced that Karunaratne would be the Left Front's candidate for the presidential election due to be held on 26 January 2010.^[5]

References

• "Vickramabahu". Left Front. Retrieved 6 December 2009. 
• "Vikramabahu Karunaratne invokes support among Tamils". TamilNet. 27 November 2009. Retrieved 6 December 2009. 

External links

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