Rajapaksa Sworn in as Sri Lankan President

Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the Sri Lankan president for his second term on 19 November 2010. Rajapaksa was sworn-in before Sri Lanka's Chief Justice Asoka De Silva at the Presidential Secretariat. He had called for Presidential Election in January 26, 2009 with almost two year still remaining in his first term. He had won an overwhelming majority in the Sri Lankan presidential election held in January 2010 by defeating opposition candidate and former Army Chief, Sarath Fonseka. The Sri Lankan Supreme Court had ruled on 2 February 2010 that his second term after being re-elected would begin from 19 November 2010.

Rajapaksa was born in Weerakatiya in the southern rural district of Hambantota. Rajapaksa took over as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) candidate for Beliatta constituency. He was first elected to the parliament in 1970. Following the Parliamentary Elections of 2004, in which the United People's Freedom Alliance gained a slim majority in Parliament, Rajapaksa was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s 13th Prime Minister on 6 April 2004. Mahinda Rajapaksa chosen by Sri Lanka Freedom Party for the presidential election in November 2005 emerged victorious and was sworn in as the President for the first time in the same year.