Ranawaka was first elected to parliament as the United National Party candidate at the 9th parliamentary election, held on 15 February 1989, for multi-member electoral district of Kalutura.
[2] He was re-elected at the 10th parliamentary election, held on 16 August 1994.
[3] He failed to get re-elected at the 11th parliamentary election, held on 10 October 2000, but was successful at the 13th parliamentary election, held on 2 April 2004, where he stood as one of the United National Front/United National Party candidates.
[4] Ranawaka died on the morning of 25 July 2009 at Sri Jayawardenapura General Hospital.
[5][6] His parliamentary replacement, Ananda Lakshman Wijemanna, was sworn in on 6 August 2009.