The Jathika Hela Urumaya contested its first parliamentary election in
2004. All of its candidates were Buddhist monks. At the election, the party won 5.97% of the popular vote (a total of 552,724 votes) and 9 out of 225 seats, making it the fourth largest party in parliament. Following the election, the party would get involved in a number of controversies. One action was introducing a bill to prohibit unethical
religious conversions. This was viewed as a reaction against
proselytism systematically carried out by
Christian fundamentalist groups with many guises, some of whom happened to be foreigners affiliated with
non-governmental organisations. There had been some dramatic infighting within the JHU parliamentary group early on in its parliamentary profile. This was partly because the group had been cobbled together just before the polls, and lacked unity on several grounds including the issue of how to relate to government formation. Two of its founding members, Theras Kolonnawe Sumangala and Uduwe Dhammaloka left the party due to conflicts within the party between the monastic and lay members. The lay leader of the Sihala Urumaya also defected to the
United National Party after seizing the party headquarters. After months of trouble, the party made a strong comeback, with the young monk
Athuraliye Rathana Thera and
Champika Ranawaka leading the comeback. Ellawela Medhananda and Omalpe Sobhitha Theras remained in the leadership. Other influential members included Dr. Neville Karunatilake and Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe. The JHU was also affiliated with the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT), SPUR, North-East Sinhala Organisation (NESO) and other local and international Sinhala nationalist groups. The JHU successfully appealed the supreme court to cut
President Chandrika Kumaratunga's term short. In October 2005, former JHU member Uduwe Dhammaloka indicated that there was a growing sentiment among the monks of the JHU that a mistake had been made in directly entering the political realm. Dhammaloka indicated that he personally believed that monks could have a more positive impact on Sri Lankan society by focusing on religious work, and that the current crop of monk-parliamentarians intended to "ensure that monks will not enter politics again" ("
Monks"). It is unclear if Uduwe Dhammaloka and other ordained members of parliament will resign their positions, or if legislation will be introduced to restrict monks from standing for public office (as is currently the case in
Thailand). The JHU endorsed
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in the
2005 presidential election. In 2007, the JHU officially became part of the
Rajapaksa government, after the resignation of Buddhist monk
MP Omalpe Thera, Champika Ranawaka was made an
MP and then Cabinet Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. In 2014, the JHU withdrew its support of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and supported
opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena backed by
United National Party in the
2015 presidential elections. In the
2015 general elections, the party contested under the elephant symbol of the UNP and won 3 seats. Champika Ranawaka was appointed as
Minister of Megalopolis and Western Development on 4 September 2015, and is to this date the only individual to have led the ministry.
Charges against the United States The JHU launched a campaign to collect one million signatures to petition
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish a commission to inquire into
human rights violations committed by the
United States. ==Ideology==