Surangani Visaka Ellawala (1939 – 14 March 2016) was a Sri Lankan politician who was a member of parliament (2000-2001) and served as the 9th Governor of the Central Province (2015-2016). She was the wife of Nanda Ellawala, who was the

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Ratnapura Ratnapura (; ) ("City of Gems" in Sinhala and Tamil) is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of Sabaragamuwa Province, as well as the Ratnapura District, and is a traditional centre for the Sri Lankan gem trade. It is located ...

, (1970-1977, 1982-1994) and the mother of Nalanda Ellawala, who succeeded his father as the member of parliament for Ratnapura (1994-1997). In 1999 she contested the 3rd Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council election as a People's Alliance candidate and was successful, winning with a landslide majority of 54,000 preferential votes, the highest number of preferential votes at the election. Following which she was appointed Minister of Social Services, Probation, Culture, Housing and Cooperatives. She then ran at the

2000 Sri Lankan parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 10 October 2000. The People's Alliance (PA) government Kumaratunga had led for six years was facing increasing criticism on two fronts: a series of military defeats at the hands of the rebel Lib ...

s in the Ratnapura electorate as a People's Alliance candidate in the Ratnapura District. She received 54,517 votes, the fifth highest and was elected as one of the ten members for the seat. She failed to get re-elected at the

2001 Sri Lankan parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 5 December 2001, just a little over a year after the last elections in October 2000. Background The People's Alliance (PA) government faced a blow when most of the SLMC MPs left the coalition ...

and chose not to run in the

2004 Sri Lankan parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 2 April 2004. The ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was defeated, winning only eighty two seats in the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament. The opposition United Peo ...

s. She was appointed as the Governor of the Central Province on 27 January 2015. Ellawala died on 14 March 2016 while serving as the Central Province Governor.

References

1939 births 2016 deaths Governors of Central Province, Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Buddhists Women legislators in Sri Lanka Members of the 11th Parliament of Sri Lanka 21st-century Sri Lankan politicians 21st-century Sri Lankan women politicians Sinhalese politicians Women provincial governors of Sri Lanka {{SabaragamuwaLK-politician-stub