Rajapaksas’ party claims landslide win in Sri Lanka poll

THE party of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan prime minister, claimed a landslide victory that added to fears among minority groups as vote-counting in the country’s election came to a close yesterday.

“Our biggest victory has been that people have trusted us and we are ready to uphold that trust,” Mr Rajapaksa told The Daily Telegraph as the results came in.

However, critics worry it further strengthens the hand of the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist Rajapaksa family, with fears they could rewrite the constitution and further target minorities.

In November 2019, Mahinda’s younger brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was voted in as president. Mahinda has previously served as president, and Gotabaya as defence secretary.

The brothers remain under scrutiny for alleged war crimes committed during the fight against the Tamil Tigers rebel group and the family has been accused of corruption and nepotism. At least four members ran in Wednesday’s parliamentary elections.

Still, the brothers’ party – a new party called the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna – was expected to win by a large margin with about 80 per cent of the votes counted, clinching the majority of the 225 seats in parliament for Mahinda to return as prime minister.

More than 70 per cent of eligible voters went to the polls.

Since his election in November 2019, Gotabaya has spearheaded a “campaign of fear”, according to the monitoring group Human Rights Watch, targeting opposition lawyers, activists and journalists with earmarked arrests, intimidation and threats.