Namal Rajapaksa, the son of Sri Lanka’s former president, will run in the Sept. 21 presidential election, he said on Wednesday (August 7), taking on the incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe whom many analysts see as the frontrunner.

 

Elected by parliament in July 2022, Wickremesinghe has shepherded the Indian Ocean nation through its worst financial crisis in decades, which triggered widespread protests that had forced his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to resign.

 

Namal Rajapaksa, a lawmaker in the 225-member parliament, is the eldest son of two-time president Mahinda Rajapaksa and a member of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, founded by his uncle Basil, which has a parliamentary majority.

 

Namal Rajapaksa also said he would hold talks with 92 parliamentarians who recently declared support for Wickremesinghe, splintering his uncle’s SLPP and severely limiting support for his candidature. But his candidacy will test whether his powerful family, which produced two presidents, has managed to retain its popularity despite Sri Lanka’s gruelling financial crisis.

 

(Reuters)