Image source, MAHINDA SAMARASINGE
Mahinda Samarasinghe, Member of Parliament for the Kalutara District of the Sri Lanka People’s Alliance has resigned from his Parliamentary post.
Mahinda Samarasinghe has resigned as a Member of Parliament following the appointment of Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States and Mexico.
He had announced his intention to resign as a Member of Parliament in the 23rd session of Parliament.
Born in Colombo in 1956, Mahinda Samarasinghe holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honors) degree from La Trope University, Australia.
who is he?
Mahinda Samarasinghe, who initially joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service, served as the first Secretary of the Sri Lankan High Commission in Australia.
He also served as a consultant to the United Nations Permanent Mission to Sri Lanka in Geneva in the 1980s. He continued to speak out against the proposed international resolution against Sri Lanka.
He also represented Sri Lanka at the International Labor Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunication Union and the International Meteorological Organization.
While working at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Geneva, he represented Sri Lanka at all of the International Labor Organization’s Governing Body Meetings and International Labor Conference in 1986 and 1987.
At the end of 1987 ILC. He successfully submitted the draft resolution on ‘Workers’ Housing’ passed at the conference.
Mahinda Samarasinghe has worked closely with a number of UN agencies, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNHRC), the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the international community.
He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Working Group and the Executive Member of the Parliamentary Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights.
Political career
Mahinda Samarasinghe entered politics in 1988 and was elected to the Provincial Council of the Upper Province.
There he served as chairman of the provincial council, and as provincial minister of health and economic infrastructure.
In 1994 he was elected to Parliament from the Kalutara District on behalf of the United People’s Freedom Alliance.
He was re-elected in 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2010.
From 2001 to 2004, he served as Minister of Employment and Labor.
Meanwhile, he was the Prime Minister of the Government from 2001-2004 and the Prime Minister of the Opposition from 2004-2006.
He joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in 2006 and was the Chief Organizer of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in the Agalawatta constituency in the Kalutara district.
He served as the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights from 2006 – 2010 and as the Minister of Plantation Industries from 2010 – 2015.
He was also a member of Parliamentary Advisory Committees on the Ministries of Commerce, Industry, Finance and Foreign Affairs.
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