Sri Lanka goes to the polls

Campaigning ahead of Sri Lanka’s presidential election, to be held on 16th November, is well underway. President Maithripala Sirisena has already confirmed he will not stand again and will step down when his term ends on 9th January. Altogether 35 candidates have registered to stand for president. However, only two, Sajith Premadasa (Sri Lanka’s housing minister and deputy leader of the ruling United National Party) and Gotabaya Rajapaksa (former wartime defence minister and brother of the previous president, Mahinda Rajapaksa) have a realistic chance of winning. Following the deadly Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, security issues are unsurprisingly featuring heavily on the campaign trail. Most of the economic interest has focused on Mr Rajapaksa’s plans to “restore relations” with China. During his brother’s presidency, booming Chinese investment left Sri Lanka saddled with lots of debt that it was unable to pay off.