When he took the oath of office as president on Jan. 9, Sirisena announced an ambitious plan for his first 100 days, including constitutional reforms to re-impose term limits on the presidency and restore some powers to parliament. Parliamentary elections are expected after that, and Rajapaksa may yet be a force to reckon with. He maintains a strong base of support in the rural southern heartland, and they will quickly latch on to any kind of split in Sirisena’s ranks.
Rajapaksa has already thrown down the gauntlet. Soon after his election defeat, he returned to his ancestral home in Hambantota in the deep south and was welcomed by a rowdy, vocal group of loyalists. He blamed his unexpected setback on minority votes, appealing directly to his hardline Sinhala base. One of them asked Rajapaksa why he didn’t simply keep the presidency by killing his rivals. “No, you can’t do that,” he said. But he is not going quietly. “I will go from one village to another,” Rajapaksa promised, “meeting my supporters and glvanizing them.” On the long road to reconciliation, the last mile.........................
-------------amantha pereira
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