Sri Lanka is heading to the polls on November 16 as its $87 billion economy struggles to recover from a political crisis and deadly Easter Sunday bomb attacks
Sri Lanka's former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa waves after he was nominated as a candidate for the presidential election during the Sri Lanka People's Front party convention in Colombo, Sri Lanka. August 11, 2019
President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, two possible candidates, have been criticized for not heeding near-specific foreign intelligence ahead of the attacks. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the once invincible strongman who hoped to rule Sri Lanka for life is constitutionally disqualified.
Elected president for the first time in 2005, Mahinda Rajapaksa led a successful campaign to defeat the Tamil Tiger separatists, who were then a ruthless terrorist group. Gotabaya as a powerful defence bureaucrat played a key role in the war victory. The opposition used a growing dissent within the government and caused a defection, with Sirisena breaking away from government and successfully contesting Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2015 election.
The failure to prevent the April 21 attack has many seeing Gotabaya as a strong leader able to protect them despite various allegations against him including condoning rape, torture and shadowy "white van abductions " of critics and disappearances and ordering the killing of hundreds of rebel and Tamil civilians surrendered to the military in the final days of the civil war.
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