By Taylor Dibbert
Incumbent Rajapaska is still the frontrunner, but high-level defections are cause for concern.
First elected president in 2005, Mahinda Rajapaksa was widely credited with winning the civil war, which helped him get reelected to a second term in 2010. Nonetheless, while it’s good that the fighting is over, the South Asian nation has faced a myriad of challenges since that time. Ongoing human rights violations, rising authoritarianism, relentless militarization, pervasive lawlessness, and increased violence against minority groups are all cause for concern.
Rajapaksa recently called a snap presidential election two years early, principally because the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance – the political grouping led by Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party – has become increasingly unpopular. Hoping to be reelected before losing even more support, Rajapaksa must have been surprised to discover that someone in his cabinet and a senior member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party would be running against him. Other high-level defections also give him good reason to worry. With Sri Lanka’s presidential election slated for January 8, the campaign is now in full swing.
The joint opposition recently agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding. If challenger Maithripala Sirisena wins he would get rid of Sri Lanka’s presidential system and replace it with a parliamentary system within one hundred days. Additionally, the 18th amendment to the constitution would be repealed, meaning that crucial institutions – including the police and the judiciary – would regain their independence. (Passed in 2010, the 18th amendment also eliminated presidential term limits, paving the way for Rajapaksa to run for this unprecedented third term).
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