Sirisena blunder may have given Rajapaksa a return ticket

Just as Mahinda Rajapaksa prepares to make a political comeback, realising he still has a big following, a leading international business daily says President Maithripala Sirisena has blundered in dissolving Parliament and setting the stage for elections.

President Sirisena has, meanwhile, acknowledged that his party, the United People's Freedom Alliance, could lose and told 15 million Sri Lankan voters that he discouraged Rajapaksa from running on the party ticket. He suggested that Tamils, Muslims, educated people, and the middle class, will not vote for Rajapaksa.

Despite his explanation amid denunciations about a "betrayal'' by parties who backed him, President Sirisena may have handed the ousted former president a return ticket.

The Wall Street Journal says in an editorial on Wednesday, the election "has provided an opening'' for Rajapaksa "to relaunch his career and perhaps emerge as Prime Minister''.

After all, Rajapaksa garnered 47.58 percent of the vote in the presidential elections in January against the consensus candidate. But his lustre dimmed because of corruption, showcase projects that are white elephants, and an unsustainable borrowing binge that has put Sri Lanka in the same league as Ethiopia, Zambia, Senegal, Angola, and Gabon, among others for billions of dollars owed.

And the former president's reemergence from Medamulana, just a few months shy of his 70th birthday, has further deepened rifts within the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, a party born just two years after Colombo's ally China declared itself a "People's Republic''.

In the comment, titled ' UpsideDown Politics in Sri Lanka' the right-leaning WSJ likens the present scenario to Rajapaksa calling an early election "in the expectation of an easy win, only for Mr. Sirisena to emerge as a serious challenger''.

Rajapaksa re-entry to politics after a brief respite through the disunited UPFA "has changed the game'' the WSJ says.

And the comment notes that President Sirisena called elections as he was not able to "enact much of the reform programme he promised''.

If, Rajapaksa becomes Prime Minister, ironically, "as a result of the pro-legislature reforms Mr. Sirisena was able to pass in the spring, the next Prime Minister will likely be the most powerful in the country's history,'' the WSJ argues.

But, if, as warned by President Sirisena the UPFA loses because of Rajapaksa, the WSJ says that "may work in Mr. Sirisena's favour. Many anti-Rajapaksa members jumped ship to form a coalition with the rival United National Front, the alliance that temporarily allied with Mr. Sirisena in his January presidential run and formed the government that supported his reforms in the spring. A big win for the UNF could mean broader reforms in the future. Sri Lanka's democracy is in an awkward state now, but a more stable two-party system could emerge.''