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Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (born 29 June 1945) was the fifth President (and fourth to hold the office as Executive president) of Sri Lanka (12 November 1994 - 19 November 2005). She was the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party until end of 2005. She was Sri Lanka's first female president.

Coming from a family that has a long history in the socio-political arena of the country, her father, Solomon Bandaranaike was a government minister at the time of her birth and later became Prime Minister. He was assassinated in 1959, when Chandrika was fourteen. Chandrika's mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, then became the world's first female prime minister in 1960 and her brother Anura Bandaranaike was a former Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and is currently the minister of national heritage. Her grandfather, Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranike was the Maha Mudaliyar, (the chief native interpreter and advisor to the Governor) during British colonial rule.

Chandrika spent five years at the University of Paris, graduating from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in political science. While in Paris she obtained a Diploma in Group Leadership from the same University. Her Ph.D studies in Development Economics at the University of Paris were interrupted by the call to serve her country, where her mother’s government had launched a wide ranging programme of reform and development.During her days in France, she was active in the Student Revolution of 1968. She is fluent in Sinhala, English and French.

After returning to Sri Lanka, she took up politics in the SLFP and in 1974 became an Executive Committee Member of its Women's League. Following the Land Reform in Sri Lanka in 1972- 1976, she was Additional Principal Director of the Land Reform Commission (LRC). In 1976 - 1977 she was Chairman of the Janawasa Commission, which established collective farms. In 1976- 1979 she acted as an Expert Consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO).

Chandrika married movie star and politician Vijaya Kumaratunga in 1978. He was assassinated in 1988. Kumaratunga herself was elected Prime Minister of a People's Alliance (PA) government on August 19, 1994 and President in the presidential election held shortly thereafter in November. This ended 17 years of UNP rule. She appointed her mother to succeed her as Prime Minister. Early in her term she made conciliatory moves towards the separatist Tamil Tigers to attempt to end the on-going civil war. These overtures failed, and she later pursued a more military-based strategy against them.

In October 1999 Kumaratunga called an early presidential election[1]. She lost her right eye in an assassination attempt, allegedly by the separatist Tamil Tigers, at her final election rally at Colombo Town Hall premises on 18 December [[1999]. President Kumaratunga defeated Ranil Wickremasinghe in the election held on 21 December and was sworn in for another term then next day. [2]

In December 2001 she suffered a setback in the parliamentary election. Her People's Alliance lost to the UNP, and her political opponent Ranil Wickremasinghe took office as Sri Lanka's new Prime Minister. She continued as President of Sri Lanka although her relationship with the Wickremasinghe government was a strained one.

In February 2002 Wickremasinghe's government and the LTTE signed a permanent ceasefire agreement, paving the way for talks to end the long-running conflict. In December, the government and the rebels agreed to share power during peace talks in Norway. President Kumaratunga believed Wickremasinghe was being too lenient towards the LTTE. In May 2003 she indicated her willingness to sack the prime minister and government if she felt they were making too many concessions to the rebels. On 4 November 2003, while Prime Minister Wickremasinghe was visiting the United States, Kumaratunga suspended Parliament and deployed troops to take control of the country, effectively putting it into a state of emergency.

Kumaratunga's PA and the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or JVP (People's Liberation Front) formed the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in January 2004. Having won the election held on 2 April 2004 the UPFA formed a government with Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister. This marked the first time in history that the JVP became a partner in a Sri Lankan government.

However, in June 2005, the JVP left her government over a disagreement regarding a joint mechanism with LTTE rebels to share foreign aid to rebuild the tsunami-devastated Northern and Eastern areas of Sri Lanka.

Kumaratunga's six-year term ended in 2005. She argued that since the 1999 election had been held one year early, she should be allowed to serve that left-over year. This claim was rejected by the Supreme Court and Kumaratunga's term was ended in November 2005. In the 2005 election, Rajapaksa succeeded her as president, leading all 25 parties in the UPFA.

• President of Sri Lanka

• Chandrika Kumaratunga's official website
• Profile by BBC
• Search BBC for news about Chandrika Kumaratunga
• Ministry of Defence : Sri Lanka
• Profile of Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga on Sri Lankan government website
• Personal reminiscence of meeting with the Sri Lankan President by S. Abbas Raza of 3 Quarks Daily.

v • d • e Presidents of Sri Lanka
William Gopallawa • Junius Richard Jayewardene • Ranasinghe Premadasa • Dingiri Banda Wijetunga • Chandrika Kumaratunga • Mahinda Rajapaksa

v • d • e Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka

D.S. Senanayake • Dudley Senanayake • John Kotelawala • S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike • W. Dahanayake • Dudley Senanayake • Sirimavo Bandaranaike • Dudley Senanayake • Sirimavo Bandaranaike • J.R. Jayewardene • Ranasinghe Premadasa • D.B. Wijetunga • Ranil Wickremasinghe • Chandrika Kumaratunga • Sirimavo Bandaranaike • Ratnasiri Wickremanayake • Ranil Wickremasinghe • Mahinda Rajapaksa • Ratnasiri Wickremanayake