---> Pallewatte Gamaralalage Maithripala Yapa Sirisena (63) was Health Minister in the Rajapaksa government and senior member of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party until he broke ranks on November 21 to become the presidential candidate for a common opposition.
---> He has pledged to abolish the
executive presidency within 100 days and return the country to a
Westminster-style parliamentary democracy where the police, the judiciary, and
the civil service will be independent institutions. Read
---> Rajapaksa had removed the
two-term limit on the presidency and given himself more powers soon after
winning a second term in 2010 in what critics say were signs of growing
authoritarianism. Read
---> Sirisena has vowed to abolish
the controversial 18th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s Constitution — which gives
sweeping powers to the President in addition to removing the two-term limit on
presidency. Read
---> He had said before the polls
that he would not withdraw troops from the island’s Tamil-majority north, as
national security would be of top priority to him “as President”. Read
---> His principal supporters
include former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and former Prime
Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe will be
appointed Prime Minister if he is elected, Sirisena had said. Read
---> Senior Buddhist monks and
political parties representing the Tamils and Muslims, including allies of
Rajapaksa, shifted support to Sirisena ahead of the election. Read
---> He was first elected to
Parliament in 1989. He has held several ministries under Ms. Kumaratunga. He
was Minister of Agriculture in the first Rajapakas government elected in 2005.
He was reelected in 2010 and appointed Minister of Health.
---> He escaped an assassination
attempt on October 9 2008 when a convoy he was part of was attacked by a LTTE
suicide bomber in Colombo.
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