Who Should Be The Common Opposition Candidate?
By Palitha Elkaduwa -November 20, 2014
Palitha Elkaduwa
This is the critical question that needs to be answered in the coming two weeks in Sri Lankan politics. The answer will have major implications for Sri Lanka’s future for the next several decades.
Government
The Rajapaksa administration has been one of the most confident administrations in post-independence Sri Lanka after the LTTE was defeated in 2009. In 2010 Mahinda Rajapaksa won the presidential election with 58% of the all island vote, polling about 67% of the Sinhalese Buddhist vote. The government’s confidence was shaken in September 2014 when it won the UVA PC with just 51% of the vote. In the 2009 Uva PC election it polled 72% and in the 2010 presidential election in the same province Mahinda Rajapaksa polled 73%.
Opposition .Read More
Enemies Of The President’s Promise: Basil The Main Political Agent Of The Family
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP
Enemies of the President’s Promise – Chapter 2 - Happy Part 4
Underlying Basil’s solipsism was his political ambition. He made no bones about the fact that he saw himself as his brother’s successor. Indeed, he had been put into Parliament before the 2010 election, though a resignation of a National List member that was engineered, on the grounds that there had to be a Rajapaksa available for appointment as President if anything untoward happened to the incumbent. And though soon after the election of 2010 Mahinda Rajapaksa introduced a constitutional amendment to remove term limits, so that Basil’s hope of being seen as necessarily the government candidate in the next election was dashed, the President placed no restrictions on him presenting himself as effectively the main decision maker in government.