The United National Party did not contest the 2024 General Election, except in a single district, to promote another party. It had not put forward a candidate in the four previous Presidential elections. UNP members did contest the Presidential elections of 2019 and 2024, but not through the party. This was a sad decline for the party that had governed Sri Lanka at independence and had changed the constitution to a Presidential system after winning a massive majority in Parliament in 1977. It stayed in power then for 17 years, but after its defeat at polls in 1994 it declined inexorably.