Despite the stunning defeat that Mahinda Rajapaksa was handed in Sri Lanka’s presidential election earlier this year, there was never any doubt he would want to make a political comeback. President Maithripala Sirisena’s victory in the January 8 election came from the two big minorities, the Tamils and the Muslims. In the Sinhala constituencies, the vote was split between him and Rajapaksa, and the margins were narrow. It was an early indication that in a parliamentary contest, the former president would still have a fighting chance. His announcement on Wednesday that “for the sake of the motherland, we must contest the election” was not unexpected, but contrary to earlier predictions that it might cause a split in the party, the SLFP does not seem divided over the issue, at least for now.
Sirisena has made it clear, to no apparent opposition from within, that Rajapaksa had no chance of a nomination from either the SLFP or the coalition it heads, the United People’s Freedom Alliance. Rajapaksa’s supporters had earlier demanded that he be nominated as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in the election. Sirisena, who has brought in small but progressive changes in order to restore the independence of the judiciary, media freedoms and bring corrections to the country’s human rights record, could have accepted such a demand only at the risk of negating his own election victory. Now there is talk that Rajapaksa might float his own party. Notwithstanding his continuing popularity in the Sinhalese heartland as the man who saved Sri Lanka from the LTTE, Rajapaksa’s chances without the party do seem diminished, even without counting in Chandrika Kumaratunga, former president and leader of the party, who has not yet announced her plans.
