Namal Rajapaksa, 38-year-old son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, will contest the election for Sri Lanka president next month. The decision to make the eldest son of the former president the presidential candidate of his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party was announced late on August 6. The election, scheduled for September 21, will be the first since the 2022 uprising in which Namal's uncle and Mahinda's brother, then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was driven from power. Mahinda, who had served as president from 2005 to 2015, was prime minister in Gotabaya's presidency. Namal will face the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) for the post. In a nation that is yet to recover fully from the shocks of economic turmoil and political instability, Namal’s candidature is being looked upon with both hope and scepticism. Some Sri Lankans see hope in a fresh face; others recall with wariness the controversies of earlier times when the Rajapaksa clan was in power. The scion of a polarising political family Namal's political journey began with his election to Sri Lanka's parliament in 2010 from Hambantota, the district that his father represented for 16 years before becoming president in 2005. Despite being a member of a political dynasty with a strong Sinhala Buddhist identity, the young Namal had sought to distance himself from cultural extremism while stressing the importance of cultural identity. “Protecting your own beliefs and culture is not extremism. It is very important to take that forward to our next generation,” he had told The Indian Express in an interview in 2018. As the national organiser of the SLPP, Namal has focused on building his team and extending his influence beyond the party's southern strongholds. In a move that is seen as being both strategic and symbolic, he has made significant efforts to engage with the Tamil-majority North. “Reconciliation will definitely take more time,” Namal had said, stressing the need for young Tamil leaders to emerge and participate in national politics. Namal's father Mahinda had ended Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war, crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in a ruthless final phase of military action in 2009. Indeed, Namal's family legacy is a double-edged sword, offering both a powerful brand and disturbing memories. The Rajapaksas are celebrated by many Sri Lankans for ending the civil war, but they are also criticised for their handling of the economy and alleged human rights abuses. Namal himself has faced accusations of nepotism and benefiting from his family's political connections. Following in his father's footsteps Namal had expressed his faith in the power of the grassroots connections that had made his father one of the most popular political figures among Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese Buddhists. “Existence and presence in politics is all about how you behave yourself, how you work, how you spend time with people in your own constituency,” he had said. He had framed his political career then as a product of destiny and hard work, and sought to argue that modern politics in Asia, despite the presence of dynasties, ultimately depended on individual merit and public service. However, even as late as in April this year, Mahinda had been careful about committing to Namal’s elevation as presidential candidate. Mahinda, supportive but cautious, had said there was time for his son to grow into the role. Could Namal win the presidential election? The presidential election will take place amid grave challenges. Sri Lanka's government has been accused of employing delaying tactics to avoid holding elections — citing financial constraints and legal battles. The 2020 election saw Gotabaya rise to power on a wave of nationalistic fervour, only for his presidency to be marred by the worst economic crisis in Sri Lanka's history. Food, fuel, electricity, and essential medicines became scarce, and the public's anger turned towards the ruling family. A bailout from the International Monetary Fund has provided a semblance of stability, but the shadow of the nation's dire economic situation continues to hang over the country. Voters are looking for a leader capable of steering the country out of bankruptcy and into recovery. Namal's would-be rivals, Wickremesinghe, Premadasa, and Dissanayake, each has a different vision for Sri Lanka's future. There is no clear favourite for the position yet among the country's deeply divided and weary electorate. Observers of Sri Lanka's politics say Namal's entry into this race is both a gamble and a calculated move by the SLPP. His youth and relative inexperience are balanced by his deep political lineage and the support of his father's followers. As the youngest candidate, he represents a new generation of Sri Lankan politicians, but his ability to transcend his family's controversial legacy and appeal to a broader electorate remains to be seen. Namal is said to be friendly with other young leaders in the neighbourhood — Rahul Gandhi, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeed Wazed. For ordinary Sri Lankans though, Namal’s most celebrated friend abroad may be the Bollywood star Salman Khan. What is known of Namal's view of the world Russia and West Asia are among the regions Namal has been focusing on. Some 1.1 million Sri Lankans live in the Middle East. “It is very interesting to see the new generation of Western educated Middle East leaders and how they are governing the traditional Arabic culture,” Namal had told The Indian Express in his 2018 interview. Geopolitically, Namal had expressed himself as being in favour of maintaining “a neutral position”. India, he had said, was “always like family in spite of misunderstanding or miscommunication”, and Sri Lanka's relations with China “were based on religion, culture and commercial transactions dating back to the Silk Route”. During the years he was president, Mahinda Rajapaksa had introduced a pronounced pro-China tilt in Sri Lanka's foreign policy.
