Until just a few weeks ago, Sri Lanka’s upcoming election seemed a mere formality. Nothing, it seemed, could keep President Mahinda Rajapaksa from rolling to a third term in office.
He was the president hailed as a king after crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 and ending the island nation’s 25-year civil war. He is a charismatic campaigner with vast campaign funds. He has turned the government into an extended family business, with politically powerful brothers, sons and nephews who can all help his candidacy.
But times change. Quickly.
An internal revolt now threatens Rajapaksa’s hold on power. Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, a close Rajapaksa aide and No. 2 in the president’s Freedom Party, defected in a secretly choreographed news conference in late November, announcing he would run as an opposition candidate in Thursday’s election.
Power, he said, has become too concentrated, and corruption epidemic.
“One family has captured the country’s economy, wealth, administration, and the management of the political party,” Sirisena told reporters. He says at campaign rallies that Rajapaksa began to believe the public support after the end of the war and “perhaps he thought he could become a real king.”