ECONOMYNEXT – Crisis-hit ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), a political party established by the island nation’s powerful Rajapaksa family, declared former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s legislator son as its candidate for the September 21 presidential poll.
The move comes after around 80 percent of the SLPP’s parliament members with some holding top ministerial posts under President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government had pledged their support to Wickremesinghe’s presidential bid.
Analysts see the move as Namal Rajapaksa (38), who has faced a raft of corruption and misappropriation charges, to regain the control of the SLPP.
Sagara Kariyawasam, the SLPP’s Secretary General said some of the key criteria needed for the candidate were possessing local values, ability to face challenges while going with global developments.
Namal Rajapaksa has been in the parliament since 2010 and backed by his father, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is considered as Sri Lanka’s most populour political leader due to his leadership in winning a 26-year war.
Namal was named as the presidential candidate after a religious ceremony at the SLPP head office located in Colombo suburb.
Most people wanted SLPP out of the government in 2022 when Namal’s uncle and former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s wrong economic policy forced the country into an unprecedented economic crisis.
Protesters, similar to Bangladesh, destroyed the properties of most SLPP legislators and ministers after Rajapaksa supporters attacked unarmed and peaceful demonstrators in Colombo in May 2022.
Later, SLPP backed Wickeremsinghe for the presidency in the parliament after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned. Wickremesinghe later ordered action against violent protesters.
Namal’s father Mahinda was the president from 2005-2015, his uncle Gotabaya also was the president from 2019-2022 before being forced to resign.
At the peak of Rajapaksa’s ruling, the family controlled a number of ministries including defence, finance, and urban development which accounted for more than 60 percent of the economy. (Colombo/August 7/2024)