Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election: landslide win for the Rajapaksa puts democracy and pluralism at risk

Twice postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, Sri Lankans finally voted on Wednesday, 5 August in the country’s parliamentary election. Here Alan Keenan (LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security and International Crisis Group) explains why the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s (SLPP) electoral victory should be understood not simply as a result of dissatisfaction with rival party United National Party (UNP), but of the failure of its internationally-backed liberal reform agenda to gain lasting traction with Sri Lankan voters, and what the results could mean for the future of democracy and pluralism in Sri Lanka.