Chennai: Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) on Wednesday declared Namal Rajapaksa, the youngest scion of the once-powerful Rajapaksa family, as its candidate for the crucial September 21 Presidential elections, making the multi-cornered contest more intense and interesting.
Namal, 38, is the elder son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is credited with dawning peace in Sri Lanka by crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which spearheaded a three-decade-long dogged battle for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the country’s north.
“It is with pride that I announce the candidature of Namal Rajapaksa as the Presidential nominee of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna,” party secretary and MP Sagara Kariyawasam said at the end of a Buddhist ceremony at the SLPP headquarters in Colombo.
The youngest candidate
Namal, who is currently the Member of Parliament from the family’s pocket borough of Hambantota in South Sri Lanka, was thrust into the Presidential race after the party’s probable nominee and casino kingpin Dhammika Perera pulled out of the high-stakes contest to elect the island nation’s 10th President.
This makes Namal the youngest candidate in the Presidential race, contested by incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, and JVP’s Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The elections come at a time when the country is limping back to normalcy after the 2022 economic crisis triggered by the wrong policies of the regime led by Namal’s uncle Gotabaya brought the country to its knees. Rajapaksas stepped aside from active politics for a while though Wickremesinghe’s government continues to function with the support of SLPP MPs.
Though Namal has been announced as the candidate, it remains to be seen whether he will be able to enlist the support of his party cadre with several SLPP MPs siding with Wickremesinghe, who was chosen as the President of Sri Lanka in mid-2022 after the then incumbent Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to quit following a popular uprising against him.
‘Namal’s candidature adds more confusion’
Wickremesinghe, who steered the country’s economy through its worst-ever time by imposing measures that have become unpopular among a section since then, is contesting as an independent candidate and hopes to cash in on the support from liberal Sinhala Buddhists, and minority Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, all three of whom speak Tamil.
The candidature of Namal is significant as it comes on the heels of the Rajapaksa family, which has been out of power for the past two years, making a concerted attempt to reinforce its strength in Sri Lanka’s polity.
Namal first became an MP in 2010 and served as Sports Minister in his father Mahinda’s cabinet till 2015. He travelled extensively in Tamil-dominated north and eastern provinces to win over the ethnic minorities, but in vain.
Tamils, who constitute the majority in north and east, don’t find Rajapaksas trustworthy as they pin the blame on the death of thousands of innocent civilians by the Sri Lankan Army during the last phase of the civil war (2006-2009) on the policies of the Rajapaksa administration.
N Sathiya Moorthy, a Chennai-based policy analyst with rich experience of covering Sri Lanka, told DH that the entry of Namal has made the election further unpredictable and difficult for any candidate to garner 50 per cent of the votes to get elected as the President according to Sri Lanka’s Constitution.
“For the fifth election in a row, the Rajapaksa family is in the contest. The JVP candidate has covered a lot of electoral space in the last two years, while Ranil and Sajith are sweating it out. The candidature of Namal has added more confusion. But, I feel Namal won’t be among the top two contenders,” Sathiya Moorthy added.
The move by SLPP to field Namal is also aimed at preventing more party MPs from pledging support to Wickremesinghe, who has been running the government since 2022.
The background
After a citizen uprising, Gotabaya and Mahinda resigned as President and Prime Minister even as politicians belonging to every political party invited the wrath of the people, who torched their residences with several veterans, including Wickremesinghe, falling victim to such actions.
Wickremesinghe was elected as President after the SLPP pledged support to him, but his “tough measures” like “high tax” have worsened people’s plight in the country though many hail his “bold moves” that are beginning to work.
Wickremesinghe’s austerity measures and hiking of taxes which have led to skyrocketing prices of essential commodities are also unpopular in the country. A World Bank report released in April said over 25.9 per cent of Sri Lankan citizens were living below the poverty line in 2023, which is an increase.