Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena (born 10 October 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician and land proprietor. He was the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from 2020 to 2024.

Political career

He first entered parliament in 1983 as part of the Hakmana United National Party and has been active in politics for more than 30 years. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena was a young MP when he openly criticised the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord for a new provincial councils system to be established in Sri Lanka. He along with Chandrakumara Wijeya Gunawardena, the member for Kamburupitiya voted against the bill in Parliament becoming the only two government members who voted against it. He was later removed by the then President J. R. Jayewardene from his Parliamentary seat for violation of the party rules by not voting for the bill. He later joined hands with Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali (who were also against the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord) as they too quit United National Party and formed the Democratic United National Front or aka 'Rajaliya-front'. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena then contested for Southern Provincial Council under DUNF and won. He was then elected as the opposition leader of the Southern Provincial Council in 1993, and he became the Chief Minister of the Southern Provincial Council in 1994. Elected twice as the Chief Minister he was in office from 1994 to 2001. He is said to be one of the most successful Chief Ministers from the south for developing the infrastructures that were neglected for more than 5 years due to the dark era of the country. He left office to contest in the 2001 general elections and become an opposition MP and served until 2004. After the 2004 General elections, he became the Deputy Minister of Healthcare and later the Cabinet Minister for Cultural Affairs & National Heritage. After the 2010 General Elections, he was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture. Having been in office as the Minister of Agriculture for several years he was elected Vice Chairman at the 38th session of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations FAO Conference held in Rome, Italy in 2013. He was again appointed as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in 2015 for a brief period until he resigned and joined the opposition. He is a representative of Matara District in the Parliament of Sri Lanka. He resides in Kalubowila, Dehiwala.

No-confidence motion

Abeywardena who was a Rajapakse ally was mostly criticized by opposition and media for acting bias from the speaker's seat. On 5 March 2024, the main opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya handed over a no confidence motion against him and claiming his actions to failure to protect the constitution by signing the Online Safety Bill and ignored the Supreme Court’s recommendations pertaining to Sections 13, 17, 20, 33 (6), 34 (1), 35 (1), 21, 22 and 33. This was the first no confidence motion against a Speaker of Parliament in the history of Sri Lanka. He was also criticized for being blatantly violated at the constitutional council to appoint inspector general of police, when we did not have the voting authority, but cast his vote.