President Mahinda Rajapaksa today completes 41 years in Parliament.

He was only 24, when he was first elected to Parliament as an SLFP member, from the Beliatta electorate in 1970. He was then the youngest Member of Parliament and represented the same electorate as his father.

In the 1989 Parliamentary elections, he again became a Member of Parliament representing the Hambantota District, and held this post until he succeeded as Executive President in November 2005.

President Rajapaksa held office as Minister of Labour and Vocational Training and of Fisheries in President Kumaratunga's Cabinet from 1994 to 2001. He put his experience in trade union activities to good use as Minister of Labour and helped settle many a labour dispute in both public and private sectors. His close understanding of issues involving the working people helped in the preparation of the Workers’ Charter, presented to the Government of President Kumaratunga. He brought a new lease of life to the field of Vocational Training by establishing the Vocational Training Authority with over 300 training centres at the village level.

As the Minister of Fisheries he started the University for Oceanography, Malabe and established a Coastal Guard Unit. He also took the initiative in launching housing schemes for the fishing communities in the country, which has seen the building of the largest number of housing units so far for any single economic sector in the country, other than the traditional housing arrangements in the plantation sector.

He also held the portfolio of the Ports and Shipping, for three months. It was during this period that he initiated the construction of a new harbour at Hambantota, which has become a landmark in the economic and infrastructure development of the country. The work on this was stalled for some time, but has now resumed after his election as Executive President.

From the time he was chosen as Prime Minister in April 2004 till his election as President 19 months later, he held the portfolio of Highways, which saw him taking a keen interest in the development of the country’s road network. This experience made him initiate the concept of Maga Neguma, focusing on the development of roads and highways, in his manifesto for the Presidential Elections 2010. As President he pursues road and highways development as an important aspect of government policy. He assumed his second term of office on November 19, 2010.

With his re-election to Presidency, he established a record in the Sri Lankan political history by being the first Executive President to lead his party to a landslide victory in Parliamentary Elections, held just after two months, with an overwhelming majority of 1,842,749, polling 6,015,934 votes. His success in Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in January and April, 2010 came after a series of sweeping victories in elections to eight Provincial Councils by the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by him. The UPFA now has an over two thirds majority in parliament.

It is President Rajapaksa’s farsighted leadership sharpened by decades-long experience in politics that eliminated the menace of terrorism Sri Lanka was engulfed with for nearly thirty years, and has set the country on the path to peace and rapid economic development.