An Analytical Study of the Current Trends in the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party

Abstract

The Soul bury period is an important period in the development of political parties in Sri Lanka. The establishment of the United National Party was an important moment in the Soul bury period. Even though the party was a pioneer of the dominant party system, whether in power or opposition, until 2020, the voter base of the party decreased in every election held thereafter. Therefore, the research question was why has the voter base of the United National Party decreased in the current Sri Lankan party system? The aim of the research was to study the factors that influenced the decrease in the party's voter base, and the research was conducted based on the 35 data contributors. The research sample consisted of 10% of the students in the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and the non-academic staff of the faculty. The stratified sampling method was used in selecting the data contributors. Data were collected via prepared open-ended questions. The obtained quantitative data was analyzed by the statistical method using MS Excel software, and the qualitative data was analyzed under the qualitative approach. It was found that the vote base of the United National Party has been reduced due to the formation of new political parties by the party's effective leaders, leadership crises, and weakening of internal party democracy. The research findings emphasize that there should be a change in the party's policy and that the party should focus on the need for an agenda with a democratic spirit, away from conservative and traditional political policies.