The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) will field Namal Rajapaksa, 38, the emerging face of the Rajapaksa clan as the candidate in the upcoming presidential polls. A formal announcement was made by the SLPP on Wednesday after a high-level meeting. The decision comes at a time when the island nation is still fighting hard to come out of the economic crisis that spiralled out of control in 2022.
Sri Lanka will vote on September 21 to elect its new president. This is the first election since the country plunged into a huge financial crisis and the ouster of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022. The election is likely to be a four-cornered contest with incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa, Jonathan Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and Namal Rajapaksa in the race. Former field marshal Sarath Fonseka has also announced that he will contest the election. The decision to field Namal emerged late evening on Tuesday after the SLPP MP Dhammika Perera backed out due to health reasons. And Namal himself volunteered to contest the election.
Who is Namal Rajapaksa?
A law graduate from the City, University of London, Namal is the eldest son of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. An attorney at Law from Sri Lanka Law college, he was also the sports minister in his father’s cabinet. As the national organiser of the party, Namal has emerged as the face of the SLPP, despite the popularity of Mahinda who is considered the strongest Sinhala Buddhist leader in the history of Sri Lanka. While his uncle Basil Rajapaksa is the go-to man of the SLPP, it is believed that Namal will be accepted by everyone across the country as he is young.
While the Rajapaksas have become unpopular after the financial crisis and the Aragayala movement in 2022, Namal in an interview with THE WEEK in 2023 said that the people have confidence in Mahinda and SLPP. “I am sure when there is an election, our SLPP party will win the majority seats in the parliament.” He was confident that the ground work carried out by his party leaders focusing the 2024 president elections will definitely work in favour of the party. He had also built a strong network and his own team within the party and outside for the past few years. Apart from the Sinhala majority regions, he has been working on the ground to build the party in the northern region, which was battered during the final phases of the war.
Namal was first elected to the Sri Lankan parliament from Hambantotta, the fiefdom of the Rajapaksas. It was from here Mahinda won and became the president in 2005. Namal contested as the candidate of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance in 2010. He was later elevated as the minister when Gotabaya was the President.
With a strong party base, the Rajapaksa believe that the elections will work in their favour. However many seniors in the SLPP are of the opinion that the Rajapaksas should stay away from the election this time as the Sinhala majority sentiment might not work in their favour. And this is the reason why Dhamika Perera was declared the candidate earlier. Last week, in fact, some of the SLPP parliament groups expressed support to Ranil Wickremesinghe who had announced his intention to contest in the upcoming presidential election.
The fight for power
The upcoming election on September 21 is expected to be most interesting as there is no terror angle to influence the sentiments of the people. All this while the LTTE, the civil war and then the Easter Sunday bombings were influential factors making the Sinhala majority to vote for a strong Sinhala Buddhist leader. However, this time, the financial crisis and its impact are considered to be the major factors which will make the 17 million people in Sri Lanka decide the mandate. Also the student protesters who were behind Aragalaya have come together and stand behind JVP leader AKD, the leftist leader of the National Peoples Power (NPP)- JVP combine.
On the other side, President Wickremesinghe who announced his intention to contest the election at the earliest, has the advantage of running the country during crisis. He ensured that the protests were put off and the IMF granted loans to bail out the country from the financial crisis. He decided to contest as an independent candidate and believes that his economic recovery plan will help him get reelected. Though Ranil doesn’t have a party of his own as of now and his UNP doesn’t have support on the ground, he was in close touch with the Rajapaksas to gain the support of the SLPP. He wrote a letter to all parties including the SLPP saying “Whilst I have decided to be an independent candidate at the 2024 presidential election, I am seeking the support of a majority of the political parties. To ensure my victory, while I expect the support of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, I await an early response from your party.” Till a week before, a few of the SLPP factions were supporting Ranil. But with Namal in the fray, the support for Ranil might not work.
Apparently, the tone of his letter to the Rajapaksas has irked them and the SLPP, “He treated our SLPP in par with the other political parties; Ours is the strongest party in Sri Lanka,” an SLPP MP told THE WEEK from Colombo. Some of the MPs were even waiting for the Rajapaksas to announce their decision.
Apart from Ranil, the other major contender is Sajith Premadasa, the leader of SJB. His party, an offshoot of Ranil’s UNP, is the opposition in Sri Lanka and he has the ground support both among the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority. The last time when Sajith contested, he won 12 of the Tamil minority votes, which again would benefit him this time. The Tamil Nationalist Alliance (TNA) is yet to announce its decision. Earlier, soon after the death of veteran leader R. Sampanthan, some of the Tamil MPs demanded that they announce a common candidate who will work in favour of the Tamils and implement the 13th Amendment. The political observers in Sri Lanka feel that the contest will be between Sajith and AKD.
