2019 Sri Lanka Presidential Elections

The latest Game of Sri Lanka’s National Sport, politics, has ended.
In words, divisive, peaceful and large turnout,

Turnout:
83% of approx 16 million eligible voters.
Total Population 21 million.

Results:
Winner: Gotabya Rajapakse 52.5% (approx 6.9 million votes)
Second: Sajith Premadasa 42.99% (approx 5.6 million votes).

Difference: 9.51% or 1.36 million votes

Divisive
Green Color (for Sajith): Minority as Majority area (Tamils and Muslims)
Red: Majority in Majority area (Sinhalese)

Await next Game, Parliamentary elections in a few months.

http://election.newsfirst.lk/

Divisive Analysis (my opinion)

Gotabaya got less of the minority vote (less than 10%) compared  Mahinda Rajapakse in 2015 (around 20%).

Tamils:  Instead of reaching out for Economic development, its still pie in the sky separatism. These views are propagated by the Tamil leadership like Sumanthiran who live comfortably in Colombo, went to Colombo schools (and their children).

Sumathiran (or someone in the TNA) went as far as to say if we dont vote for Sajith we cant defeat the Sinhalese. The Tamils united and backed Sajith by over 70% in the North and East. That was the kiss of death for Sajith with the Sinhalese voters in the south

Muslims:   Sajith, hobnobbed with Muslim MP’s who had been pals of the Easter Terrorists. The Muslims voted for Sajith en masse (again over 70%) and Sajith lost a lot of Sinhala votes.

The Sinhalese responded,and united in what they saw as Sajith’s apparent support for separatism and seeking support of Muslim MP’s sympathetic to Islamic Extremists. The SLPP party base is not sufficient to win. There has been UNP crossovers to Gotabya and he won with pretty much only the Sinhalese vote.

Background on Gotabaya Rajapakse
Was the all powerful Defense Secretary 2005-2015.  Credited with ending the Civil Wat, Urban renewal and Infrastructure development.   Diploma in IT from Uni of Colombo. MS in Defense Studies from the University of Madras and various Defense related training  In SL Army, 1971-1992 retired after 20 years as Lieutenant Colonel.   Unix Admin (1998-2015) at Loyola Law School, CA.  Credited with being a Technocrat and authoritarian.

Gotabaya and Wife Ioma

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotabaya_Rajapaksa

Published by

sbarrkum

I am 3/4ths Sri Lankan (Jaffna) Tamil, 1/8th Sinhalese and 1/8th Irish; a proper mutt. Maternal: Grandfather a Govt Surveyor married my grandmother of Sinhalese/Irish descent from the deep south, in the early 1900’s. They lived in the deep South, are generally considered Sinhalese and look Eurasian (common among upper class Sinhalese). They were Anglicans (Church of England), became Evangelical Christians (AOG) in 1940's, and built the first Evangelical church in the South. Paternal: Sri Lanka (Jaffna Tamil). Paternal ancestors converted to Catholicism during Portuguese rule (1500's), went back to being Hindu and then became Methodists (and Anglicans) around 1850 (ggfather). They were Administrators and translators to the British, poets and writers in Tamil and English. Grandfathers sister was the first female Tamil novelist of modern times I was brought up as an Evangelical even attending Bible study till about the age of 13. Agnostic and later atheist. I studied in Sinhala, did a Bachelor in Chemistry and Physics in Sri Lanka. Then did Oceanography graduate stuff and research in the US. I am about 60 years old, no kids, widower. Sri Lankan citizen (no dual) and been back in SL since 2012. Live in small village near a National Park, run a very small budget guest house and try to do some agriculture that can survive the Elephants, monkeys and wild boar incursions. I am not really anonymous, a little digging and you can find my identity.

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thewarlock
thewarlock
4 years ago

he looks Bengali. Sinhalese are from E India so makes sense

Bengalistani
Bengalistani
4 years ago

Btw aren’t those muslims also Tamils? What language do they speak?

Indo-Carib
Indo-Carib
4 years ago

So it appears that Sri Lanka is now firmly in China’s grasp.

Indo-Carib
Indo-Carib
4 years ago
Reply to  sbarrkum

For now…

From what I’ve read, Sri Lanka’s president is pro-China while the prime minister is pro-India. But still not too good for India, if it’s steadily losing whatever tenuous grip it may have had on the countries in its immediate sphere of influence.

Razib Khan
Admin
4 years ago
Reply to  Indo-Carib

the rational response to this encirclement is to respond in kind (antichinese sentiment in mongolia and vietnam are red-hot, for example). but india doesn’t have the power projection yet.

Indo-Carib
Indo-Carib
4 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

Seems increasingly unlikely that India will ever have that kind of power.

Saurav
Saurav
4 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

India HAD that power at least with Sri Lanka and Nepal. But frittered that power for some foolish domestic political reasons. And is about to do that wrt Bangladesh in the coming decade.

The Emissary
4 years ago

Great summary mate. This was really informative yet also concise!

Damo
Damo
4 years ago

“Tamils: Instead of reaching out for Economic development, its still pie in the sky separatism.”
Not accurate. I’m in Jaffna. Whole family voted en masse for sajith because we fear what Gota will do. I invite all readers to do a search of ‘human rights violations’ with his name on any search engine.
“Sumathiran (or someone in the TNA) went as far as to say if we dont vote for Sajith we cant defeat the Sinhalese.”
This was a slanderous lie spread in the media. Sumanthiran is now suing the papers involved for libel.

Brown Pundits