Rajapaksa scion running for president of Sri Lanka

Entry of Namal Rajapaksa comes two years after uncle resigned amid economic meltdown

COLOMBIA – A scion of the powerful Rajapaksa clan is running for the presidency of Sri Lanka in elections next month, more than two years after his populist uncle had to flee the country and resign amid an economic crisis.

The clan’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party named Namal Rajapaksa, 38, as their presidential candidate at a ceremony attended by family members in Colombo. The party, which leads the government coalition, had supported incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the current term.

“Victory for Namal is guaranteed because he possesses local values, understands the aspirations of the people, and can face up to challenges,” said party general secretary Sagara Kariyawasam.

The vote on Sept 21 will be the first for the country after a historic debt default in May 2022 that resulted in living standards plummeting and led to widespread unrest, forcing Namal’s uncle Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

Namal’s participation in the presidential election signals the Rajapaksa clan is trying to re-consolidate power among the country’s Buddhist majority.

The former sports minister will run against Wickremesinghe, main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is backed by the socialist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party. Nearly 20 candidates have so far placed deposits at the Election Commission to contest the polls, for which the nominations are due on Aug 15.

Namal’s father Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose decade in power brought the end of Sri Lanka’s ethnic war, and uncle Basil Rajapaksa, a former finance minister, attended Wednesday’s event at the party headquarters. Supporters held prayers and cheered the announcement. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, however, was not present, suggesting some friction within the clan.

In an interview with Bloomberg News in 2022, Namal said that while his uncle’s government had inherited a bad economy from the previous administration, it also made some key policy errors and failed to pivot quickly when the pandemic hit.

Wickremesinghe, 75, who took the presidency through a parliament vote, is standing as an independent candidate. He’s won endorsement from some members of the SLPP, who have been part of his cabinet that oversaw a recovery of the economy and backed a $3-billion International Monetary Fund bailout package.

Wickremesinghe, seen by most as the frontrunner, is campaigning on a platform of continuing reforms in order to tap more funds and sustain growth. Dissanayake has won support amid a campaign for equitability of growth and elimination of corruption.

Namal Rajapaksa’s candidacy will test whether his powerful family has managed to retain its popularity despite the country’s gruelling financial crisis.

Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt in May 2022 but has since signed a $10-billion restructuring deal with bilateral creditors and aims to finalise a $12.5-billion debt restructuring with bondholders, efforts Namal Rajapaksa said he would support.

He added that he would work to create jobs and help small businesses as the economy makes a fragile recovery, backed by the IMF bailout.

“We are studying the IMF programme to see how we can work around some of its requirements, such as government revenue increases … without increasing the burden on the public,” he said.