Sri Lankans seek security in post-Easter attack election

Sri Lanka's former defense secretary and presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa attends a rally in Homagama, on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka. With a record 35 candidates vying for the presidency, Rajapaksa, a former defense official under his brother, ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was widely expected to triumph over ruling party Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa. But as the election approaches, the race has become very close.

Presidential candidate of Sri Lanka's governing party Sajith Premadasa waves to supporters during a rally in Negombo, Sri Lanka. Premadasa entered the fray after an open rebellion against his party leader Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, rallying support by pledging to boost welfare programs and by embracing disgruntled party stalwarts.

Sri Lankan Catholics pray standing on a road as they attend a brief holy service marking the seventh day of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks near St. Anthony's Church in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Worries about Islamic extremism will be paramount for many Sri Lankan voters while others hope to block former leaders accused of human rights violations from returning to power in Saturday’s presidential election, the country’s first national polls since last Easter’s deadly suicide attacks. Simply put, fear is driving the election in Sri Lanka, a South Asian island nation of 22 million people off India’s southern tip.

Soldiers return to their base following an operation searching for explosives and suspects tied to a local group of Islamic State militants in Kalmunai, Sri Lanka. Worries about Islamic extremism will be paramount for many Sri Lankan voters while others hope to block former leaders accused of human rights violations from returning to power in Saturday’s presidential election, the country’s first national polls since last Easter’s deadly suicide attacks. Simply put, fear is driving the election in Sri Lanka, a South Asian island nation of 22 million people off India’s southern tip.

Sri Lankans watch as soldiers clear the debris inside damaged St. Anthony's Church after it was targeted in a series of Islamic State-claimed suicide bombings that killed hundreds of people during Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Worries about Islamic extremism will be paramount for many Sri Lankan voters while others hope to block former leaders accused of human rights violations from returning to power in Saturday’s presidential election, the country’s first national polls since last Easter’s deadly suicide attacks. Simply put, fear is driving the election in Sri Lanka, a South Asian island nation of 22 million people off India’s southern tip.

A Sri Lankan Muslim man waits to offer afternoon prayers a week after suicide bomb attacks on Churches in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Worries about Islamic extremism will be paramount for many Sri Lankan voters while others hope to block former leaders accused of human rights violations from returning to power in Saturday’s presidential election, the country’s first national polls since last Easter’s deadly suicide attacks. Simply put, fear is driving the election in Sri Lanka, a South Asian island nation of 22 million people off India’s southern tip.

November 15, 2019

The polls are the country’s first since Easter’s deadly suicide attacks that killed 269 people. With a record 35 candidates vying for the presidency, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former defense official under his brother, ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was widely expected to triumph over ruling party Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa. But as the election approached, the race became very close.

Many in Sri Lanka’s ethnic Sinhalese Buddhist majority favor Gotabaya because of his role in the Rajapaksa government’s decisive victory a decade ago over ethnic Tamil rebels, ending the secessionist civil war. But some minority Tamils and Muslims fear his reputation.

Subjects
People
- Mahinda Rajapaksa
Locations
- Sri Lanka,
- South Asia,
- Asia