Gotabaya Rajapaksa is Sri Lanka's new president. The former defense minister bested Sajith Premadasa, a serving Cabinet minister who focuses on domestic affairs, in elections last Saturday, riding a nationalist tide that backed his "law and order" platform. The return to power of the Rajapaksa clan could redirect the country's geopolitical orientation toward China, a potentially important shift given the island's location astride vital sea lanes. Yet even more important is the prospect of a conservative, Hindu ethno-nationalism returning to guide Sri Lanka's volatile domestic politics.
Rajapaksa comes from a Sri Lankan political dynasty. His younger brother, Mahinda, was president from 2005 until 2015. During that tenure he ended a bloody 26-year insurgency waged by Tamil separatists. Gotabaya served as secretary of defense in that government and played a critical role in the final assault that ended the rebel campaign. The brutalities of that war, along with allegations of corruption, resulted in Mahinda's surprise defeat in the 2015 presidential election.
A subsequent constitutional amendment imposed term limits on the presidency, barring the younger Rajapaksa's return to the office. The family then formed a new political party, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, and ran Gotabaya for president. He prevailed with 52 percent of the vote, a 10 percentage point margin of victory.