Rajapakse rally gathers in Colombo
Tuesday, 6 November 2018
COLOMBO, Nov 05 (AFP): Thousands of supporters of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse headed for the capital on Monday to rally in support of his controversial nomination as prime minister, as the island's constitutional crisis deepened.
Sri Lanka has been gripped by political turmoil since President Maithripala Sirisena sacked his former ally, prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, on October 26 and appointed Rajapakse in his place.
Busloads of Rajapakse followers were arriving Monday from across the country for the rally planned near parliament in the capital Colombo.
Parliament has been suspended while Rajapakse seeks support for a vote of confidence by tempting defectors from other parties.
The former strongman remains a popular if polarising figure in Sri Lanka politics. His iron-fisted rule ended a long and bloody civil war that claimed 100,000 lives.
But his decade in power was marred by serious allegations of rights abuses, corruption, forced disappearances and the persecution of the island's sizeable Tamil minority.