Reggie Padmasena Ranatunga (22 April 1937 – 31 May 2008) was a Sri Lankan politician belonging to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He was the third Governor of Sabaragamuwa, serving between June 2005 and February 2008. Reggie Padmasena Rantunga was born on 22 April 1937 and was educated at Nalanda College, Minuwangoda and

Ananda Sastralaya, Kotte Ananda Sastralaya (Sinhalese language, sinhala: ආනන්ද ශාස්ත්‍රාලය) is a public boys school located in Kotte, Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1890 as Kotte Buddhist English Mixed School. In 1952 a part of the school land ...

. Ranatunga's interest in politics resulted in his enrollment at the Moscow Faculty of Political Science in 1960. In 1962 he joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and was appointed the SLFP Organizer for

Minuwangoda Minuwangoda ( si, මිනුවන්ගොඩ, ta, மினுவந்கொட) is a town in Gampaha district, governed by an Urban Council, situated near Negombo, Western Province of Sri Lanka. It is located east of Negombo and north ...

in 1986. At the 1989 parliamentary elections he was first elected to parliament representing

Gampaha Gampaha (Sinhala: ගම්පහ ; Tamil: கம்பஹா ) is an urban city in Gampaha District, Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is situated to the north-east of the capital Colombo. It is the sixth largest urban area in Western Province ...

and was subsequently re-elected in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2001. He served as the Minister for Civil Aviation (August – October 2000) and Minister of Food and Marketing Development (October 2000 – 2001) in the

Kumaratunga cabinet The Kumaratunga cabinet was the central government of Sri Lanka led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga between 1994 and 2005. It was formed in November 1994 when Kumaratunga was elected president and it ended in November 2005 when her second li ...

, and the

Chief Government Whip The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom ...

between 1 November 2000 and 10 October 2001. He is the father of six sons, including former international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

ers, Arjuna Ranatunga and Sanjeeva Ranatunga, along with Dammika Ranatunga, Nishantha Ranatunga,

Prasanna Ranatunga Prasanna Ranatunga (born 1 January 1967) is a Sri Lankan politician, member of parliament, and current Minister of Urban Development and Housing. He was also appointed as the Chief Government Whip on 18 April 2022. He was the 7th Chief Ministe ...

, and Ruwan Ranatunga. On 21 February 2008 he was appointed as the MP for

replacing Sripathi Sooriyarachchi, who was killed in a car accident on 9 February, however Ranatunga died on 31 May 2008. His replacement

Neil Rupasinghe Don Jayawickramage Neil Rupasinghe (Don Jayawickramage Neel Rupasinghe) is a Sri Lankan politician, a former member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka The Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ...

was sworn in on 6 June 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ranatunga, Reggie Padmasena Alumni of Ananda Sastralaya, Kotte 2008 deaths 1937 births Chief Government Whips (Sri Lanka) Government ministers of Sri Lanka Governors of Sabaragamuwa Province Members of the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka Members of the 10th Parliament of Sri Lanka Members of the 11th Parliament of Sri Lanka Members of the 12th Parliament of Sri Lanka Members of the 13th Parliament of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Freedom Party politicians Sri Lankan Buddhists