ISAS Briefs

With the Sri Lankan presidential election set for 8 January 2015, pressure is building up against the incumbent , Mahinda Rajapaksa . In the 2010 presidential election, R ajapaksa, as the candidate of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) , won re - election, in a landslide , in the backdrop of the Sri Lankan military’s conquest over the Tamil separatists. Rajapaksa called another presidential election, two years before schedule, hoping to further consolidate his position 2 With a divided opposition, this would probably have been a very easy win , had Maithripala Sirisena not resigned from the party to oppose him for the presidency. Sirisena was the general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Rajapaksa’s party , and Minister of H ealth . This led to a domino effect , with several ruling party luminaries defecting from the government. In a historic and important turn, the opposition United Nationalist Party (UNP) , along with several SLFP loyalists, as well as former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, chose Sirisena as the common candidate to run a gainst Rajapaksa.