Still bouncing back, after 45 years Wickremesinghe, the wily fox with a talent for survival

There are few who have been stalwarts of Sri Lankan politics in the past half a century quite like the man often referred to as "the fox".

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Ranil Wickremesinghe, who gained his nickname for his apparently wily ability to repeatedly resurrect his political career, has been prime minister six times since he first entered politics in 1977, though he has never completed a term.

His first ascension to the role came in 1993 after the assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa in a bomb attack by Tamil separatist militants during Sri Lanka's three-decades-long civil war. But, in what would become a theme, his term did not last long.