Edmund Peter Samarakkody (19 April 1912 – 4 January 1992) was a Ceylonese lawyer, trade unionist, politician and Member of Parliament.

[5] Samarakkody was one of the founding members of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in December 1935 and was elected to its executive committee.

[2][4][5] He took a leading role in militant leftist action, including the strikes at Vavasseur Coconut Mill and the Colombo Commercial Company Fertiliser Works in 1937, the latter for which he and Goonewardene were arrested.

formed the "T" group (Trotskyist) which sided with Leon Trotsky in the International Communist whilst Stalinists (P. Kandiah, M. G. Mendis, A. Vaidyalingam, Wickramasinghe etc.)

[3][4] The LSSP played a major role in a wave of strikes in 1939/40 and consequently it was proscribed in 1940 and its leaders Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena, Perera and Samarakkody arrested in June 1940.

[4][5][7] The four LSSP leaders, aided by sympathetic prison guards, escaped from Bogambara on 7 April 1942 and whilst de Silva, Gunawardena and Perera fled to India Samarakkody went into hiding in Ceylon.

[4][5] De Silva, Gunawardena and Perera were arrested by the Indian police in 1943 after being betrayed by Stalinist called Shukla and deported back to Ceylon.

[5] De Silva, Philip Gunawardena, Perera and Samarakkody were prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to six months in prison.

[7] Towards the end of World War II in 1945 Gunawardena and Perera broke from the BLPI and resurrected the LSSP as a separate party.

[7] Samarakkody stood as the BLPI candidate in Mirigama at the 1947 parliamentary election but on was defeated by D. S. Senanayake, leader of the United National Party and future Prime Minister.

[5] Philip Gunawardena, who opposed the merger, left the LSSP and founded the Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party (VLSSP).

[5][14] Fernando and Samarakkody's action proved controversial within the LSSP(R) as they had in effect supported the capitalist UNP which would go on to win the 1965 parliamentary election.