Lanka goes to polls today, Rajapaksa eyes comeback

The election to the 225-seat national parliament promises a close battle between the United National Party (UNP) of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of President Sirisena.

Over 15 million voters are eligible to vote in the election to be held under electoral <g data-gr-id="35">districts-based</g> proportional representation system. 196 members will be elected from districts while 29 will be appointed based on the national proportion of votes polled by each party.

To have a working majority government, 113 seats are needed in the National Assembly.

The rivalry between Wickremesinghe and Sirisena is limited to party positions they hold as the former’s support helped the latter become president in January by defeating Rajapaksa. <g data-gr-id="33">However</g> the real challenge to the UNP comes from <g data-gr-id="32">former</g> president and Sinhala strongman Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa, 69, forced himself into the UPFA reckoning to contest the parliamentary poll, an action unprecedented for a former president of the country.

Sirisena was not in favour of granting Rajapaksa a party <g data-gr-id="29">ticket</g> but his party allies have defied his wishes. “Not only you held two terms, you deprived the party seniors opportunities by trying to stay on forever,” Sirisena alleged in a letter to Rajapaksa last week.

Sirisena said he had to consent to <g data-gr-id="31">allowing</g> Rajapaksa to contest the August 17 election as there was a threat that the party would be split if he was not given a party ticket.

Accusing Rajapaksa of alienating Tamil and Muslim minorities from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Sirisena asked his predecessor not to create divisions in the party. 

Sirisena was Rajapaksa’s health minister until he came forward as the opposition unity candidate to challenge the then president last year.

He faced immediate sacking from the party only to be handed the party leadership when he defeated Rajapaksa in the January presidential election.

“I will start from where I left off in January,” said Rajapaksa who runs from the Sinhala Buddhist-majority rural Kurunegala district in the northwest having shifted from his home base in the 

deep south.