DailyMirror
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) veteran DM Jayaratne took his oaths as Prime Minister of the newly elected United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government. He was sworn in by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the auspicious time of 6:07 p.m. at a simple ceremony in Temple Trees.
The 79-year-old SLFP stalwart Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Jayaratne was born on June 4, 1931 and first entered parliament in 1970 from the Gampola electorate in the Kandy
district.
In the 1970 -1977 Sirimavo Bandaranaike government, Mr. Jayaratne first held the portfolio of Food, Agriculture and Forest Resources and then that of Agriculture, food and Cooperatives.
After the electoral setback in 1977, he was re-elected to parliament in 1989 polling 54,290 votes, this being the highest number of preferential votes for the SLFP in the Kandy district.
In 1994 he entered parliament through the People’s Alliance (PA) National List and held the portfolio of Lands, Agriculture and Forest Resources in the Chandrika Kumaratunga government. In the PA government of 2000 he held the portfolio of Agriculture, Foods and Cooperatives and followed it up with the portfolio of Posts, Telecommunication and Upcountry Development in the 2004 UPFA Government. From 2007 he held the portfolio of Plantation Industries.
Mr. Jayaratne has also held the post of Asia-Pacific Chairman of the World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).