biography
| name: |
Bandaranaike, Sirimavo (Ratwatte Dias)
|
| |
née Ratwatte
|
pronunciation:
[bandaraniykuh]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1916–2000)
|
| biography:
| Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) prime minister (1960–5, 1970–7, 1994–2000), born in Ratnapura, S Sri Lanka. Following the assassination of her husband, S W R D Bandaranaike, in 1959, she became leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, won the Ceylon general election (1960), and became the world's first woman prime minister. She held the position for a second time following independence, and again in 1994. Her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunge (1945– ) became president of Sri Lanka (1994– ), having previously been prime minister for a few months. |
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