Fernando was appointed as the
United National Party (UNP) electoral organizer for Badulla District when he was only 27 and won the highest number of votes in the Uva Provincial Council Election in 2005. He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Badulla District in 2010 and resigned on 5 August 2014 to contest as candidate for Chief Minister of Uva Province. Even though Fernando won the highest number of preferential votes, the UNP lost in
Uva Provincial Council elections. Fernando became the leader of the opposition in the
Uva Provincial Council. Fernando played a critical role in President
Mahinda Rajapaksa's defeat in the
2015 presidential elections, after Rajapaksa called for an early election where the
UPFA won narrowly at the
Uva Provincial Council elections. Fernando had strongly criticised the
Rajapaksa regime for its corruption, authoritarian rule and rise of lawlessness. Harin's criticisms significantly reduced Rajapaksa's popularity in
Badulla and
Monaragala. Fernando openly campaigned for the common candidate
Maithripala Sirisena in the elections. Soon after the elections, a number of UPFA provincial councillors backed Fernando, thus giving the UNP a majority in the Uva provincial council. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uva Province before the
Governor and succeeded
Shasheendra Rajapaksa. In August 2015, Fernando was elected to parliament, gaining the highest votes in the Badulla District. Shortly afterwards he was appointed as Cabinet Minister of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure. Fernando criticized
Facebook for being too slow to combat social media users who had used
Facebook and
WhatsApp to plan and facilitate the
anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka. On 20 May 2022, amidst the
2022 Sri Lankan protests and
political crisis, Fernando was sworn in as the
Minister of Tourism and Lands and officially became a member of the
Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe led cabinet, against the wishes of his own party, the
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB). He and fellow minister
Manusha Nanayakkara had subsequently been suspended from the SJB. Both ministers would later resign from their ministerial portfolios on 9 July 2022, but would again be reappointed to their same positions by President
Ranil Wickremesinghe on 22 July 2022. A year later, on 18 July 2023, the Working Committee of the SJB expelled Harin Fernando and Manusha Nanayakkara from the party. Shortly afterwards, on 2 August 2023, Fernando and Nanayakkara were readmitted into the
United National Party by the party's working committee. On 9 August 2024, the
Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ruled that the decision by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya to expel Harin Fernando and Manusha Nanayakkara from the party was legally valid. As a consequence of this judgement, their expulsion resulted in the loss of their parliamentary seats and ministerial portfolios. On 16 August 2024, it was announced that Harin Fernando had been appointed by the
President of Sri Lanka,
Ranil Wickremesinghe, as the Advisor to the President on Tourism, Land, Sports, and Youth Affairs, with immediate effect. ==References==