Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections could see the return to the political centre stage of its former strongman president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In January he lost the presidency to a former ally, who also took the leadership of Rajapaksa’s party, the SLFP. President Maithripala Sirisena says he won’t lead it again.
Rajapaksa’s 10 years in power began in 2004. Now he wants to be prime minister. But Sirisena has forged a cross-party alliance led by the rival United National party, and sought to weaken the presidency and reform government. He wants to end Sri Lanka’s long history of political feuding.
Rajapaska’s trump card is his victorious waging of war against the minority Tamil separatists. Six years ago he ended 26 years of bloody civil war by storming the Tamil Tiger’s last bastion, but not before it had cost at least 70,000 lives, with 140,000 people unaccounted for. It was a victory tainted with accusations of a massacre, and in the aftermath Rajapaksa put the accent on trium
In January he lost the presidency to a former ally, who also took the leadership of Rajapaksa’s party, the SLFP. President Maithripala Sirisena says he won’t lead it again.
Rajapaksa’s 10 years in power began in 2004. Now he wants to be prime minister. But Sirisena has forged a cross-party alliance led by the rival United National party, and sought to weaken the presidency and reform government. He wants to end Sri Lanka’s long history of political feuding.
Rajapaska’s trump card is his victorious waging of war against the minority Tamil separatists. Six years ago he ended 26 years of bloody civil war by storming the Tamil Tiger’s last bastion, but not before it had cost at least 70,000 lives, with 140,000 people unaccounted for. It was a victory tainted with accusations of a massacre, and in the aftermath Rajapaksa put the accent on trium
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