COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has conceded defeat in his bid for a third term in office, his spokesman said on Friday. Rajapaska has bowed to the people’s decision and left Temple Trees, his official residence, said Wijeyanda Herath, his media secretary.
In a result unthinkable just weeks ago, Rajapaksa lost to his former friend and health minister, Maithripala Sirisena, who defected from the ruling party and turned the election into a referendum on the president and the enormous power he wields over the island nation of 21 million.
Here are 10 important things we should know about Sri Lanka’s president-elect:
- Sri Lanka’s Maithripala Sirisena was a low-profile minister when a rudderless opposition chose him to spearhead a campaign to topple the president.
- The son of a World War II veteran, Sirisena entering parliament in 1989 after settling in the eastern district of Polonnaruwa, where he had worked as a local government official. At the time his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was struggling to find candidates willing to risk attacks by Marxist Sinhalese militants who wanted an elections boycott.
- Sirisena was also a soft target for the Tamil Tiger rebels during the height of fighting and says the separatists may have tried to assassinate him on at least five occasions.
- Sirisena was jailed for nearly two years after being arrested on suspicion of leading a revolt against the government in 1971 when he was just 20.
- 63-year-old farmer-turned-politician had become a rallying point for disaffected Sri Lankans. He rejected the president’s accusation of backstabbing, promising to “end the Rajapakse family rule”.
- Dressed in the white sarong and tunic favoured by Sri Lankan politicians, Sirisena appeals to a rural electorate while his main backer, the centre-right United National Party (UNP), is more popular in urban areas.
- Maithripala Sirisena has pledged to abolish the executive presidency within 100 days and return the country to a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy where the police, the judiciary, and the civil service will be independent institutions.
- The government has accsued Sirisena of being a proxy of former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, who came out of retirement to boost his electoral fortunes by asking her loyalists to vote for him.
- Maithripala Sirisena says he will make UNP leader and former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe his prime minister if he wins, and together they pose a a serious threat to Rajapakse.
- Sirisena’s vision for the country ties in closely with the free-market, investor-friendly policies of the opposition UNP which provided him with the political base to challenge Rajapaksa.
