Weeks after former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ended his exile, his brother and ex-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has expressed confidence in returning to power even if the general elections were to be held in the country today.
“We know there is a section of this country against us. When we have an election, we know that we will have more. Even today, if there is an election, a general election, we will win. That is the truth,” the elder brother of Gotabaya Rajapaksa said while addressing a large public rally.
Mahinda admitted that although his government may have made mistakes, there have been other people in history who have made mistakes too: “When something goes wrong, we have a chance to fix it. We don’t need to be ashamed,” he underlined.
Rajapaksa's SLPP launched a nationwide campaign months after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to resign from the presidency and flee abroad in the wake of unprecedented public unrest. He returned to the island nation in the first week of September after spending more than 50 days in exile -- in Thailand and Singapore.
The former president has kept a low profile since hastily fleeing to the Maldives on July 13, hours after angry protesters broke into his official residence demanding his resignation over the nation’s worst financial crisis in decades.
Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the lone parliamentarian of his party, became president in July with the help of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s SLPP.
The current Sri Lankan president has been making efforts such as raising taxes on many items to bring the economy onto a “sustainable path,” but has failed to get assurances from lender countries and organizations on debt restructuring, a measure essential to ensure funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Meanwhile, Mahinda has increased political activities in recent days, indicating that the family wants to return to power sooner rather than later.
On Monday, the IMF and Sri Lanka held discussions on the steps the country must take to obtain approval for the proposed Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program. Anne-Marie Gulde, deputy director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the IMF, said last week that the multilateral organization is very concerned about the situation in Sri Lanka.
The country of 22 million people has a debt of $51 billion, primarily from venture capital funds and countries like China, India, and Japan.