Sri Lankan brothers seek to tighten grip
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa hopes to tighten his hold on the nation’s fractious politics in an election tomorrow that could elevate his brother and allow the two to change the constitution if they prevail.
Rajapaksa, who claims credit for controlling the spread of the coronavirus in the island nation, hopes to install his elder brother and former president — current caretaker Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa — in the post formally with an outright election victory.
Voters in the Indian Ocean nation of 21 million people will wear masks, carry their own pens to mark ballot papers and maintain physical distancing for the parliamentary polling that has twice been postponed because of Covid19.
Votes will be counted on Thursday.
Sri Lanka had reported 2823 infections of the novel coronavirus and 11 Covid19 deaths as of yesterday.
Those totals are lower than in neighbouring south Asian countries and have been held in check by a strict lockdown since March.
‘‘We will make it safe for you to vote,’’ chief election commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said, urging people to vote without fear.
The Rajapaksa brothers, who built their political careers as Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists, are best known for crushing Tamil separatists fighting for a separate homeland for their ethnic minority.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who won the presidency in November, is not up for reelection in the parliamentary polls.
Given the support the brothers enjoy among the Sinhalese majority, Mahinda is favoured to become prime minister over Sajith Premadasa, the son of Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was assassinated while president by a Tamil suicide bomber in 1993. — Reuters