Sri Lanka's contentious Rajapaksa scion enters presidential race

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s ruling party nominated a scion of the controversial Rajapaksa family Wednesday to challenge the incumbent president in September 21 polls, the first since the country’s unprecedented economic meltdown.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party named Namal Rajapaksa, 38, as its candidate at a Buddhist ceremony at their party office in the capital Colombo.

“After careful consideration, the party decided to make Namal Rajapaksa our presidential candidate,” SLPP Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam said.

Namal was a former sports minister under his father Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency, which ended in January 2015.

His uncle, Gotabaya, also won the presidency in November 2019, but was forced out during the economic crisis in 2022.

The entry of a Rajapaksa into the fray formalised a widening split in the government ahead of the election.

A majority of legislators from the SLPP had wanted the party to back their new ally, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, after praising him for turning the economy around after the 2022 crisis.

Wickremesinghe is not from the SLPP.

But he had its backing to replace then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, after he fled and resigned following months of protests over corruption and mismanagement.

Despite the downfall of Gotabaya, the SLPP enjoyed a majority in the 225-member parliament, controlled the government — and had supported Wickremesinghe.

However, the parting of ways began when the election was called last month.

That revealed the splits in the once-dominant SLPP, a nationalist party appealing to the Sinhala majority.

The SLPP said it will campaign to elect Namal as the next president, turning the presidential poll into a battle among four main candidates.

Wickremesinghe had contested two presidential elections and lost both. However, he had been prime minister six times since entering parliament in 1977.