Premadasa, son of slain Sri Lanka president, now in contest for same role
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Mr Sajith Premadasa entered politics after his father was killed in a suicide bombing in 1993.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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COLOMBO - Mr Sajith Premadasa, the leader of Sri Lanka's main opposition party, is a frontrunner in Sept 21's presidential election and a win will hand him the top job more than 30 years after his father was assassinated while holding the same post.
Mr Premadasa, 57, studied at the London School of Economics and entered politics after his father, Mr Ranasinghe Premadasa, was killed in a suicide bombing during a May Day rally in 1993.
He entered Parliament in 2000 and later served as Sri Lanka’s deputy health minister. In 2018, he was appointed minister of housing construction and cultural affairs.
In 2019, Mr Premadasa made his first run for the presidency. He gained 42 per cent of the votes to finish second behind Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country in 2022 and later resigned
Mr Premadasa favours a mix of interventionist and free-market economic policies and currently leads the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party that broke with President Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party in 2020.
In the general elections that followed in August in 2020, the SJB won 54 seats to become the main opposition to Mr Rajapaksa's party, which won a overwhelming majority in the 225-seat Parliament.
His centrist, more left-leaning party has called for changes to the US$2.9 billion (S$3.7 billion) bailout programme with the International Monetary Fund and his manifesto outlined plans to adjust some targets, such as changing taxes to reduce the cost of living.
“His policy outlines a comprehensive range of reforms and empowerment initiatives across various sectors,” said a report by The Oslo Institute of Political Research and Advocacy.
“Notably, this policy statement is distinguished by its detailed presentation of facts and figures, enhancing its credibility compared to other policy statements.”
There are 38 candidates for the presidency but Mr Premadasa, alongside Mr Wickremesinghe and Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake, are the three frontrunners, analysts say.
The Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey by Institute for Health Policy shows Mr Premadasa coming in second in voting preferences at 32 per cent, trailing behind Mr Dissanayake at 36 per cent, followed by Mr Wickremesinghe who is third with 28 per cent.
Mr Premadasa is popular among the island's Tamil and Muslim minorities, who feel marginalised under previous governments which drew support from the majority Sinhala Buddhists.
“Mr Ranil shrunk the economy, and people are suffering without even four square meals,” Mr Premadasa said on the final day of campaigning this week.
"Some have lost their livelihoods, and there’s no one to represent them. We will build a new, clean government of the people and restore the dignity of all Sri Lankans," he said. REUTERS
