There were two striking developments after voters in Sri Lanka went to the polls on Jan. 8 to select their president. First, the incumbent, Mahinda Rajapaksa, lost. To the surprise of virtually every poll watcher, he was ousted by former Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena. Second, and perhaps even more surprising, Rajapaksa handed over power when the results become clear, rather than clinging to office, democracy be damned.
The fights are not over, however. Rajapaksa still holds considerable power in Parliament and he is likely to use that as a base to battle the new president and whatever government he selects. Moreover, there is keen outside interest in Sri Lanka, and foreign governments may try to meddle in its domestic politics to protect their investments.
Rajapaksa is a larger than life figure in Sri Lanka, having first entered Parliament in 1970, where he served for seven years until losing his seat and returning to the practice of law. He was re-elected in 1989. He served as prime minister for a year in 2004 before being elected president in 2005 and was head of state since then. He was the architect of the victory over the Tamil Tigers in the civil war that raged from 1983 to 2009 and claimed as many as 100,000 lives.