Mahinda Rajapaksa (born 1945) was President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015 and Prime Minister on several occasions, most recently from 2019 to 2022. He was born in Weeraketiya in the Hambantota district and first entered Parliament in 1970, aged 24.
The civil war ended during his presidency in May 2009 with the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. His terms were marked by large-scale infrastructure investment, particularly in the south, and by extensive debate over post-war accountability, press freedom and the concentration of executive power. He was defeated in the presidential election of January 2015.