Wijetunga was closely associated with veteran politicians including
George E. de Silva and
A. Ratnayaka. Ratnayake, who was then Minister of Food and Co-operatives in the
D. S. Senanayake cabinet, took Wijetunga in as his
private secretary. Wijetunga joined the
United National Party in 1946 and unsuccessfully contested the
Kadugannawa electorate in the
1956 general election, the
Yatinuwara electorate in the
March 1960 general election and the
Udunuwara electorate in the
July 1960 general election. He entered parliament for the first time when he successfully contested the
Udunuwara electorate in the
1965 general election. He lost the Udunuwara electorate in
1970, but returned to parliament in the
1977 general election which saw a massive landslide for the UNP. Wijetunga was subsequently appointed as Cabinet Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the
Jayewardene cabinet. Throughout Jayawardene's presidency, Wijetunga functioned in various ministerial capacities holding the portfolios of Posts and Telecommunication, Power, Highways and Agricultural Development. He served briefly as the governor of
North Western Province in 1988 before returning to parliamentary politics a few months later. In the
1989 general election, he secured the largest number of preferential votes in the Kandy District.
Premiership (1989–1993) Wijetunga was surprisingly appointed as prime minister in 1989 by president
Ranasinghe Premadasa. He also held the Ministries of Finance and Labour and Vocational Training in addition to being the state minister of defence in the
Premadasa administration.
Lalith Athulathmudali was
shot dead in April 1993 while campaigning for the provincial council elections. The killing provoked widespread protests against the government and allegations were hurled at the president for complicity in the assassination. A week later, president Premadasa was also
assassinated in
Colombo at a May Day rally in a
suicide bombing widely considered to be an act of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Wijetunga became acting president until parliament convened to elect a successor to the president Premadasa under the terms of the Constitution. Wijetunga was
unanimously elected by Parliament to complete the remainder of Premadasa's term and was sworn in as the third executive president of Sri Lanka on 7 May 1993.
Presidency (1993–1994) Wijetunga appointed
Ranil Wickremesinghe as his prime minister, a close relative of former president Jayawardene. Wijetunga's presidency coincided with the rise of
Chandrika Kumaratunga within the ranks of the
Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the main opposition party. Wijetunga did not believe that peace could be achieved by negotiating with the LTTE. The
Eastern Province was liberated from the LTTE during his tenure except for
Thoppigala. After a decisive defeat in the Southern Provincial Council election in 1994, he dissolved parliament prematurely in June of that year. The UNP saw a major defeat to the SLFP-led
People's Alliance in the
1994 general election and Wijetunga appointed Kumaratunga as prime minister. Even though under the constitution, Wijetunga was bestowed with wide powers, he chose not to exercise much authority, letting prime minister Kumaratunga manage the affairs of the country. He decided not to contest the
1994 presidential election and appointed
Lucky Jayawardena as the party organizer for his former electorate, Udunuwara. He relinquished office in November 1994 after Kumaratunga was elected president in a historic landslide. ==Death==