Sirisena gaining ground in race against Rajapaksa for Sri Lankan presidency
Opposition leader Sirisena is gaining ground on incumbent Rajapaksa
Over a dinner of rice-flour pancakes with his trusted health minister one evening in November, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa observed with a grin that there would be no serious candidate to challenge him in the presidential election.
Little did Rajapaksa know then that the man who would stand in his way of winning an unprecedented third term as president of this Indian Ocean island nation was right there beside him.
"When he said that nobody was going to challenge him, I was next to him and felt sorry for him," Maithripala Sirisena later told a campaign meeting about his decision to turn on the president and to run as the opposition's common candidate in tomorrow's poll.
"I came out because I could not stay anymore with a leader who had plundered the country, government and national wealth."
Branded a traitor by Rajapaksa's close allies, Sirisena has forged many political alliances and now appears to be within striking distance of unseating a president who, just weeks ago, had looked unassailable.
Since Sirisena's defection, 25 Rajapaksa loyalists in the 225-seat parliament have followed, unleashing a wave of disgust with a leader whose once-extraordinary popularity has withered amid complaints of autocracy, corruption and nepotism.