Forty years since oath taking:

Religious ceremonies to bless President

Island-wide religious ceremonies has been organized on Monday, June 7 to invoke blessings on President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who completes 40 years since he first took oaths as a Member of Parliament on the same date in 1970.

President Rajapaksa entered the then National State Assembly as its youngest member by winning his ancestral Beliatta constituency for the United Front coalition at the May 27,1970 parliamentary election.

The following 40 years saw him becoming a MP, Minister, Opposition Leader and Prime Minister before being elected President.

He was sworn in as the fifth Executive President of Sri Lanka on November 19, 2005.

His most prominent achievement to date is considered to be ushering peace by liberating the country from the scourge of terrorism which plagued the nation for nearly three decades.