[13] Previously a minor political party known as the Sri Lanka National Front (SLNF) and Our Sri Lanka Freedom Front (OSLFF), it was relaunched in 2016 as the SLPP and the party became the base for members of the United People's Freedom Alliance loyal to its former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Rajapaksa family.

[17] The SLNF contested again in the 2004 Sri Lankan parliamentary election in 17 of the 22 electoral districts but once again failed to win any seats in Parliament after securing 493 votes (0.01%).

[18] SLNF leader Wimal Geeganage contested the 2005 Sri Lankan presidential election and came in eighth after securing 6,639 votes (0.07%).

[19] The SLNF contested the 2010 Sri Lankan parliamentary election in 19 of the 22 electoral districts but failed to win any seats in Parliament after securing 5,313 votes (0.07%) across the country.

[24] In November 2016, the OSLFF relaunched itself as the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, a political front for the Joint Opposition, and appointed G. L. Peiris, the country's former minister of foreign affairs and Rajapaksa ally, as its chairman.

[39] The Rajapaksa administration introduced massive tax cuts in late 2019,[40] which lead to a drop in government revenue that was soon compounded with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the island nation losing its lucrative US$3 billion tourism industry that put 200,000 out of work in 2020 and most of 2021.

[41] Following severe shortages of fuel, the state owned Ceylon Electricity Board was forced to implement 10–13 hour power cuts across the island in late March.

The speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka issued a statement that night that Rajapaksa would resign from office on 13 July.

[50][51] Political parties including the country's opposition agreed to form an all-party interim government after the president's resignation.

[54][55] On the morning of 13 July, Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka and appointed Wickremesinghe as acting president in his absence.

[60] During the 2022 Sri Lankan presidential election, Dinesh Gunawardena temporarily succeeded Mahinda Rajapaksa as the de facto leader of the SLPP.

[62][63] In 2024, there was much speculation whether the SLPP would field its own candidate or endorse incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe at the 2024 presidential election.

[66] From the election results so far it is apparent that the NPP is on the threshold of obtaining a two-thirds majority in Parliament , or fall slightly short.

[11] The split and rightward turn of the SLPP,[3] which moved towards neo-nationalism and right-wing populism,[8][9] corresponded with the shifts of the nation's two other major parties: Anura Kumara Dissanayake's leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna moved closer to social democracy and democratic socialism, while Sajith Premadasa's free-market oriented United National Party (and later the Samagi Jana Balawegaya) became more supportive of welfare.

The SLPP will undoubtedly tread a free market-oriented path but have Mahinda Rajapaksa to disguise its policy in state-capitalist rhetoric.