Rajapaksas officially ditch Wickremesinghe, youngest heir announced as candidate for Lanka presidency

COLOMBO: Namal Rajapaksa, the 38-year-old heir to the Rajapaksa dynasty, was on Wednesday named as the SLPP candidate for the presidential election, thus officially ending Rajapaksa family’s backing to the incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Sagara Kariyawasam, the general secretary of the Sri Lanka People's Front (SLPP, also known locally by its popular Sinhalese name, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna), announced the younger Rajapaksa’s candidacy early on Wednesday morning at a ceremony at the party headquarters.

Namal's entry has made the election a four-cornered contest. Besides, President Wickremesinghe, the main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and the Marxist JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake are already in the fray.

The Rajapaksas – Mahinda, Basil and Gotabaya – were instrumental in Wickremesinghe winning the parliamentary vote in July 2022 to take over Gotabaya’s remaining term.

It was soon after the unprecedented development of mid-April 2022 when the island nation declared its first-ever sovereign default since gaining independence from Britain in 1948 and almost civil war-like conditions followed as unrest spread amid locals over inflation and other economic stress that had led to Gotabaya’s ouster.

Wednesday's development comes days after the SLPP lost nearly 100 of its MPs to Wickremesinghe after he announced his candidature as an independent.

Those MPs have condemned their party’s decision to ditch Wickremesinghe but the SLPP, in turn, has vowed disciplinary action against those who back Wickremesinghe, defying the party decision.

Namal was a late decision from the party. The favoured candidate, business tycoon Dhammika Perera, on Tuesday told the party he was unable to contest due to personal reasons, sources said.