Thousands rally in Sri Lanka, asking Rajapaksa family to quit politics

Thousands of people demanding “total system change” have rallied in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his powerful brothers to quit politics amid a deepening economic crisis.

At the Galle Face Green on Colombo’s waterfront, students, teachers, lawyers, actors and architects – many of whom said they were protesting for the first time – chanted “madman Gota” and “Go home Gota”, referring to the president’s nickname, as they gathered under a blistering sun.

They waved the Sri Lankan flag and held up hand-written placards in Sinhalese and English that carried messages such as “No more corrupted politicians” and “Save Sri Lanka from the Rajapaksa family”.

“This is a do-or-die moment,” said 29-year-old Buddhi Karunatne, who works in advertising.

“For the first time, people of all kinds of political and social beliefs are coming together, with non-negotiable demands for the president to resign and hand over power to people who are capable of getting us out of this socioeconomic crisis.”

The display of anger marked a stunning reversal for Rajapaksa, 72, who won the presidency in 2019 by a big margin and whose party went on to secure a two-thirds majority in the parliament less than a year later. Those victories allowed Rajapaksa to appoint his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister and amend the constitution to strengthen the president’s powers.

He also went on to hand three other Rajapaksa family members key positions in his cabinet, including the finance, agriculture and sports portfolios.

‘No Rajapaksa should be there’

Sparked by a foreign exchange crunch, the economic downturn is Sri Lanka’s worst in decades. It has resulted in soaring inflation that has left the poor struggling to afford enough to eat and caused fuel shortages and hours-long power cuts that have threatened to close down businesses.