Who’s on the ballot? A guide to Sri Lanka’s Presidential candidates
This is the second in a series of reportage notes on contemporary Sri Lankan politics. This note was first published on 20 September 2024. No substantive corrections other than for clarity, style, or grammar have been made since its original publication. Read the previous note here.
Sri Lanka’s second Presidential Election since the 2022 economic crisis is scheduled for tomorrow. Thirty-nine candidates are in the running, with three main candidates each having at least two failed bids in their past. In alphabetical order,
The Left-field Candidate
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the charismatic leader of the Leninist-Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), is contesting as the candidate for the JVP-led coaltion, National People’s Power (NPP). Dissanayake first ran in 2019, coming in third behing victor Gotabaya Rajapaksa and loser Sajith Premadasa. Dissanayake only manged 3.16% of the total votes. After Rajapaksa’s ousting in 2022 following public protests, Dissanayake threw his hat into the ring again, this time getting only three (his included) of the 225-vote poll.
The NPP is mostly centred around the hard-left and JVP. He has managed to distance himself publicly from the politburo-run nationalist (recent) past of the party. His manifesto lacks cohesion and is more a collection of policies written seemingly by sector-experts with their own interest, than a gospel document to govern with. His most vocal policy wonks preach protectionist economics, insular trade policies, and controls on free markets. However, he is also backed (anecdotally, at least) a considerable number of seasoned former civil servants and reasoned public policy experts.
His parliamentary colleague Harini Amarasuriya (a field-respected anthropology PhD with a background in gender, youth, and related social issues) is tipped to be his Prime Ministerial appointee over his other, much more experienced, parliamentary colleague Vijitha Herath. Dissanayake has pledged to dissolve parliament as soon as he appoints a new cabinet, which will include Amarasuriya, Herath, Lakshman Nipuna Arachchi (former member of Parliament who will replace the seat vacated by a Dissanayake win), and Jeevan Thondaman (current Minister of Plantations, whose Ceylon Worker’s Congress has always coalesced with the ruling party of the time).
If he wins, Dissanayake’s faces three main challenges: managing expectations of delivery on graft-crackdown and stolen asset recovery; ensuring that parliament doesn’t vote down a budget, thereby automatically dissolving itself; and delivering on social welfare schemes whilst managing the state’s dire finances. At 55, he is at the country’s minimum retirement age.
The delayed-Heir self-Apparent
Sajith Premadasa is also running for the third time, first time losing out to Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019, and the second time withdrawing his candidacy on the day in 2022. He is the son of assassinated President Ranasinghe Premadasa (killed in a suicide attack by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 1993).
Premadasa left his father’s United National Party (UNP) in 2019 to form the Samagi Jana Balawegaya as a challenge to both UNP’s leader (since 1994) Ranil Wickremesinghe, as much as to his political rival for the Presidency Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Both him and his supporters stress (mostly as response to questions about his own capacity) that the SJB’s political bid is a team effort and that governance responsibility will be divvied up among the more policy-savvy members of his party. Unlike his other challengers, Premadasa (who is widely mocked for his pretentious tone and Daedalian vocabulary, which are both seen as him being out-of-touch) has shied away from press interviews and live political programmes.
His only governance commitment has been to announce that economic pundit Harsha de Silva (a well-respected economist who is credited with implementing an India-backed emergency ambulance service in Sri Lanka) will be Finance Minister in a future SJB government. Financial mismanagement issues plague Premadasa, including about a billion Rupees of misspend during his tenure as a Minister from 2015–2019, refusing public access to records for another billion Rupees allocated to him as Leader of the Opposition between 2019–2024, and lack of transparency over an estimated billion Rupees spent on political handouts (see note at end).
If elected, Premadasa’s primary challenges would be to stave-off Rajapaksa-allies who have joined his election campaign with hopes for future Ministerial posts; mitigate the liabilities (both political and financial) of his sister Dulanjalee and wife Jalani; and manage expectations of his chief financier Lakshman Fonseka. Premadasa is 57.
The Little Prince
Namal Rajapaksa is the firstborn of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and nephew of other former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The de facto youth minister during his father’s tenure, he became the Youth Minister during his uncle’s. He is contesting from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), despite the party having lost a chunk of its MPs initially to Ranil Wickremesinghe upon his election in 2022, and another chunk of its MPs to Sajith Premadasa ahead of the election.
Although a key political player, Rajapaksa has no reasonable chance of winning the poll. Instead, he sees it more as an opportunity to secure his political future as the leader of the SLPP.
He promises job creation, economic development, and a country free of corruption (the Rajapaksa family itself faces allegations running into the billions on graft, embezzlement, and money laundering, including through a bag of gemstones supposedly left for the family by his maternal grandmother). He is the youngest of the candidates at 38.
The Fort-Holder
This is incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe’s fourth time running for President. He first ran in 1999, being defeated by then incumbent Chandrika Bandaranaike-Kumaratunge; and again in 2005, being defeated by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. His last bid was in 2022 when he faced off one-time Rajapaksa ally Dullas Alahapperuma (who at the time was backed by opposition leader Sajith Premadasa). Wickremesinghe’s previous runs were from his United National Party (UNP), but this time he is contesting as an independent candidate under the symbol of a gas cylinder.
He is backed by the handful of close confidantes that stayed back when the vast majority of his UNP split away from him in 2019, a group of Rajapaksa allies, and several Tamil and Muslim parties. Wickremesinghe’s main pitch is as the person who undertook the recovery responsibility after Sri Lanka’s 2022 sovereign default (although floating the Rupee and raising policy rates, which were the immediate steps to respond to the economic crisis happened before his appointment).
Wickremesinghe promises stability, warning that his competitors lack the vision and experience to navigate Sri Lanka through economic recovery. During the two-year window since his election in 2022, Wickremesinghe attempted to curtail civil liberties and censor the internet; sidestepped formal administrative channels by using advisors for governance; and flagrantly coalesced with Rajapaksa-allies.
Born a year after Sri Lanka gained independence, Wickremesinghe is oldest at 75.
Big ambitions, small chances
The ballot also includes several key political players who are seeking to strengthen their political futures through the exposure (and small vote bases) that the election can bring.
Key among them is Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka’s first serving three-star General. He is running for the second time after an unsuccessful challenge to President Rajapaksa in 2010 — which left him stripped of his ranks and jailed for corruption.
Media Mogul Dilith Jayaweera whose advertising arm Triad and television station Derana were key to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s win in 2019, is running in coalition with extreme-right allies from the Rajapaksa camp.
Former Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapaksa is running as the candidate from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), backed by a former President Maithripala Sirisena (whose overtures to back Wickremesinghe’s bids were rejected).
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Note: The writer is the requester and a campaigner for transparency from Sajith Premadasa, the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, under Right to Information laws.
