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Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan politician and former military officer who served as the eighth President of Sri Lanka from 2019 until his resignation on 14 July 2022.

On 13 July 2022,

Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka in self-exile to the Maldives via a military jet and to Singapore on 14 July via an Emirates flight.

He previously served as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Urban Development from 2005 to 2015 under the administration of his elder brother former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, leading the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers, which ended the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Born to a prominent political family from the Southern Province, Rajapaksa was educated at Ananda College, Colombo, and joined the Sri Lankan Army in April 1971.

Following basic training at the Army Training Centre, Diyatalawa, he was commissioned as a signals officer and later transferred to several infantry regiments.

He saw active service in the early stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War with the elite Gajaba Regiment, taking part in several major offensives such as the Vadamarachi Operation, Operation Strike Hard, and Operation Thrividha Balaya, as well as counter-insurgency operations during the 1987–1989 JVP insurrection.

He took early retirement from the army and moved into the field of information technology, before immigrating to the United States in 1998.

He returned to Sri Lanka in 2005, to assist his brother in his presidential campaign and was appointed Defence Secretary in his brother’s administration.

During his tenure, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces successfully concluded the Sri Lankan Civil War defeating the Tamil Tigers and killing its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009.

He was a target of an assassination attempt in December 2006 by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.

Following the war, Rajapaksa initiated many urban development projects.

He stepped down following the defeat of his brother in the 2015 presidential election.

He emerged as the SLPP candidate for the 2019 presidential election, which he successfully contested on a pro-nationalistic, economic development, and national security platform.

He was the first president of Sri Lanka with a military background and also the first elected president who had never held an elected office before.

During his presidency, he increased his presidential powers through the 20th Amendment and nepotism rose as members of the Rajapaksa family were appointed to several positions of power, and led the country during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic mismanagement drove the country to bankruptcy, causing Sri Lanka to declare default for the first time since gaining independence in 1948.

This economic crisis caused shortages and inflation, leading to the 2022 Sri Lankan protests and political crisis; the Rajapaksa administration responded by declaring a state of emergency, which allowed the military to arrest civilians, impose curfews, and restrict social media, assaulting protesters and journalists, and arresting online activists.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa refused to step down, and after an organized attack by loyalists of Mahinda Rajapaksa against peaceful protestors, the government deployed the military in armored vehicles with shoot-on-sight orders after protests became violent.

On 13 July, Rajapaksa fled the country and appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Acting President to exercise Presidential duties during his absence from Sri Lanka.

On 14 July 2022, Rajapaksa officially resigned.

Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa was born in Palatuwa in the Matara District, as the fifth of nine siblings, and was brought up in Weeraketiya in the southern rural district of Hambantota.

He hails from a well-known political family in Sri Lanka.

His father, D. A. Rajapaksa, was a prominent politician, independence agitator, Member of Parliament, Deputy Speaker, and Cabinet Minister of Agriculture and Land in Wijeyananda Dahanayake’s government.

His elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa was first elected to parliament as a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party at the age of 24 in 1970, he gradually rose through the party ranks becoming the Leader of the Opposition in 2001, Prime Minister in 2004, and the President of Sri Lanka in 2005.

Two of his other brothers, Chamal Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa, are also current Members of Parliament.

He obtained his primary and secondary education at Ananda College, Colombo.

Rajapaksa joined the Sri Lankan Army as a Cadet Officer on 26 April 1971, when Sri Lanka was still a dominion of the British Commonwealth and was amid the 1971 JVP insurrection.

Following his basic officer training at the Army Training Centre, Diyatalawa in its 4th intake, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 26 May 1972 in the Sri Lanka Signals Corps.

Soon after he was sent for the signal young officer’s course at the Military College of Signals, Rawalpindi.

On his return, he was assigned as the signals officer to the Task Force Anti Illicit Immigration, based at its headquarters in Palaly, under the command of Colonel Tissa Weeratunga.

In April 1974, he was promoted to Lieutenant, and in October he transferred to the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment as an infantry officer.

In April 1975, he attended the infantry young officers course at the School of Infantry and Tactics, Quetta.

Returning in June, he was assigned as the battalion intelligence officer at the Echelon Barracks in Colombo and was promoted to Captain in April 1977.

Following the change of government in the 1977 general election, he was transferred to the Army Training Centre, Diyatalawa as an officer instructor in August 1977.

In January 1978, he was appointed Grade III Staff Officer of A branch, handling the administration of the Diyatalawa Garrison.

During this time he attended the senior staff and tactics course at the Panagoda Cantonment and took part in preparing a report on encroachment of state lands in the north and eastern provinces for the Defense Ministry.

Thereafter in 1980, he joined the newly formed Rajarata Rifles as its adjutant under its first commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel V. K. Nanayakkara.

Rajapaksa played a major role in establishing the regimental headquarters of the newly formed regiment at Saliyapura.

That year he attended the Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, Assam and in 1982 he was selected to attend the Command and Staff Course at Defence Services Staff College in Wellington in India, gaining a psc qualification and an MSc in Defence and Strategic Studies from the University of Madras To assist his brother’s presidential election campaign, Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka from the United States in 2005.

He obtained citizenship in Sri Lanka but kept his US citizenship.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was appointed to the post of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence in November 2005 by newly elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

In this capacity, he oversaw the military operation which eventually defeated the LTTE in May 2009. With his position, Rajapaksa also pursued projects like the Colombo Beautification Project, which revitalized public centers and parks in Colombo, as well as many other development projects, focused on places such as Battaramulla Diyatha Uyana, Ape Gama Park, Wetland Park, Nugegoda, Arcade Independence Square, Wears Ganga Park and Defence Headquarters Complex.

In 2011, the Ministry of Defense was renamed the Ministry of Defense and Urban Development, having absorbed responsibilities related to urban development.

Results of his work were remarkable as Colombo became at the top of the list of fast-developing cities in the world in 2015 by an annual travel study by MasterCard.

Rajapaksa’s inauguration took place at the Ruwanwelisaya in Anuradhapura on 18 November 2019.

It is the first elected office Rajapaksa has held and he is the first non-career politician and former military officer to serve as president.

Following the assumption of the office of president, he announced intentions to form a new government and take over the portfolio of defense.

On 19 November 2019, following taking over assumed duties at the Presidential Secretariat, he appointed P. B. Jayasundera as Secretary to the President and Major General Kamal Gunaratne as Secretary of Defence, as well as a new Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On 20 November, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe agreed to resign for Rajapaksa to form a caretaker government until fresh parliamentary elections can be held after the President can constitutionally dissolve parliament in March 2020.

On the same day, the presidential secretariat called for all provincial governors to tender their resignations.

On 21 November, he appointed his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister following the resignation of Ranil Wickremesinghe and the day after appointed a 15-member Cabinet of Ministers.

Thus, Sri Lanka became only the second nation in the world after Poland to have a combination of brothers taking charge as president and Prime Minister of a country on the same occasion.

Following the protests calling for his resignation, Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed a new Cabinet to pacify the protests.

He took away the power from three of his relatives, ousting two of his brothers and his nephew from the Cabinet. Mahinda Rajapaksa was still the Prime Minister.

Website: gota.lk

Political Party: Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna

Honors: Gotabaya Rajapaksa received an Honorary Doctorate, a Doctor of Letters from the University of Colombo on 6 September 2009, along with his brother President Mahinda Rajapaksa following public acclaim as a war hero.

Questions About Gotabaya Rajapaksa

What is Gotabaya Rajapaksa qualification?

Sri Lanka Military Academy University of Colombo

Is Mahinda Rajapaksa a lawyer?

Rajapaksa is a lawyer by profession and was first elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka in 1970. He served as the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party from 2005 to 2015. Rajapaksa was sworn in for his first six-year term as president on 19 November 2005. He was subsequently re-elected in 2010 for a second term.

How old is gotabaya?

74 years (.2022)

What is Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka?

It was one of Sri Lanka’s most powerful families during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency when many members of the family occupied senior positions in the Sri Lankan state. As their political power grew, there were reports suggesting that the country was heading towards autocracy under their rule.

Why Sri Lanka is poor?

Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.

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