Rajapaksa, who is the first retired military officer to assume the top office, appealed to minority Tamils and Muslims – who form about 20 percent of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population – to rally around him. The 70-year-old leader popularly known as Gotabaya campaigned on the plank of security and economic revival. A former lieutenant colonel in the army, Rajapaksa plans to rebuild the security arms of the state, including its intelligence cells and surveillance networks that he says the outgoing administration dismantled under international pressure.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa sworn in as Sri Lanka’s new president
