Sri Lanka: President Wickremesinghe may face his own cabinet colleague in presidential polls

Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe may have to face his cabinet colleague, Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, if he stands for a re-election in the presidential poll which is due later in the year.

Speaking to reporters on May 1, former president Maithripala Sirisena, the chairman of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) said that that Rajapakshe would be his party's candidate in the presidential election.

Sirisena said, “He will be the most suitable candidate from SLFP.”

Rajapakshe is a member of the fragmented Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, which houses members of the United People's Freedom Alliance, a loyal party to its former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Part of SLPP is currently in alignment with Wickremesinghe while another section supports the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).

SHB is a political alliance led by Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa.

The SLPP Rajapaksa loyalists are not likely to field a candidate as the party has been struggling since the mass protests which engulfed the country in 2022. 

The demonstrators blamed the erstwhile powerful Rajapaksa family for the island nation’s unprecedented economic crisis.

While Wickremesinghe is yet to announce his candidacy, he is relying on cross-party support for his re-election to implement an economic reform programme to pull the country out of bankruptcy.

The main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake have already announced their candidature.