The heir apparent of the Rajapaksa dynasty will face an unusual challenge in the September 21 presidential election, with his loyalists confronted by another Namal Rajapaksha on the ballot paper.
With 36 candidates having paid their deposits to get on the ticket by Tuesday evening and one more day left to pay, the 2024 ballot paper is set to be the longest yet.
Adding two Namals with the same last name makes the voting slip potentially the most confusing—at least for Namal’s loyalists. Fielding candidates with names similar to main contenders has been a tried-and-tested tactic before, notably by the Rajapaksas themselves.
In 2015, the Rajapaksas not only fielded another “Sirisena” in an attempt to confuse voters of Maithripala Sirisena—the opposition’s common candidate—but also gave him a makeover to resemble the man from Polonnaruwa.
The gimmick may not have fooled many, but the duplicate Sirisena — A. R. Sirisena—ended up finishing third, albeit with a huge gap, garnering 18,174 votes, or 0.15 percent of the total.
The Namal Rajapaksha entering the September election is a known spoiler. His name, when written in Sinhala, is identical to that of the scion of the Rajapaksa clan. Few will notice the slight difference in the English spelling—this Namal has an “h” in the family name, RajapaksHa.
In the 2015 poll, Rajapaksha, who tried to siphon off some votes from the family patriarch, Mahinda, ended up coming fourth, just behind the fake Sirisena, with 14,379 votes. In the 2019 presidential election, Rajapaksha’s ability to woo real Rajapaksa voters appeared to have diminished, with his votes dropping to 9,497.
Rajapaksha’s symbol in 2015 was the old-style rotary telephone, which is now the sign of Sajith Premadasa’s SJB party. This time, Namal Rajapaksha is contesting from the Samabima Party, whose symbol is an envelope.
Apart from battling dissension within the once-monolithic party, the Rajapaksa prince-in-waiting will have to contend with deception, misdirection, and obfuscation—all key traits of a successful Sri Lankan politician.
