Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya was prevented from reaching the perch for nearly an hour by a group of MPs and was only able to access it under the protection of unarmed police and parliamentary assistants. They then had to protect him from throwing books and office supplies thrown by supporters of Mahinda Rajapakse, a…
In Sri Lanka, polling stations closed on Monday at 4 p.m. local time, after legislative elections placed under enhanced protection. 74,000 police and gendarmes monitored the ballot. With these elections, the country’s former strongman, Mahinda Rajapakse, president for nearly ten years until his failure in the January presidential election, is trying to return to center…
It is the potential return of Mahinda Rajapakse on the political scene which is the real stake and unknown of the poll. Mahinda Rajapakse, defeated in the presidential elections of January 2015, tries to return to business, by becoming Prime Minister. He indeed reigned over the country without division for ten years. In 2004, he…
A dramatic turn in Sri Lanka. The unsuccessful presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka was arrested on Monday by the police, on charges of “military offenses”. The authorities suspect the former head of the armed forces of wanting to instigate a coup d’état. Ally last spring to the outgoing president in the fight against the Tamil rebels,…
Sri Lanka returns to a painful past. Five years later, the Rajapaksa family regains power. After Mahinda, now ineligible, it was his brother Gotabaya who was elected on Sunday as president of this South Asian island. Nicknamed the Terminator, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 70, wins with more than 50% of the vote ahead of the former Prime…
Nearly 15 million voters were called to the polls in Sri Lanka to say which of the two main candidates will win the supreme seat. Among them, the head of state, whose term will only end in two years and who has taken the liberty of bringing forward the date of the election. With the…