Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa clan eyes comeback in presidential election, faces ‘herculean task’

This week, the Sri Lanka People’s Front (SLPP) led by the Rajapaksa clan unveiled Namal Rajapaksa, the 38-year-old son of popular war-time leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the presidential candidate for the election on September 21.

Analysts say a “herculean task” lies ahead for the younger man, who has been hailed by his father as the youth leader demanded by the earlier protest movement.

The family rose to power in the last stages of Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war with separatist Tamil group LTTE and was hailed as heroes, especially by the country’s Sinhala Buddhist majority, following the victory of government forces in 2009.

After dominating Sri Lankan politics for close to two decades, the clan met its downfall during mass protests sparked by the country’s debilitating economic crisis.

In May 2022, while serving his third tenure as prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to quit the position and flee to a naval base in eastern Sri Lanka. His brother, then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was forced to leave the country and resign just two months after thousands of Sri Lankans gathered in Colombo to protest against the regime over unbearably high living costs and scarcity of essentials such as medicine and fuel.

Namal Rajapaksa was forced to resign as the youth and sports minister in the same crisis.

The protesters stormed into official buildings and occupied the presidential premises, as well as the president’s and prime minister’s official residences, where they swam in the president’s pool, slept on his bed and played his piano.

In 2023, in a landmark judgment, Sri Lanka’s apex court ruled that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and their younger brother and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa were responsible