274 : Sri Lanka’s Transformational Election
S D Muni, Professor Emeritus at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses in New Delhi (India)
13 January 2015
Maithripala Sirisena's unexpected victory against his former boss and the incumbent
President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka's presidential election held on 8 January 2015
signifies a major political transformation in the country. The margin of victory, at 3.7
percentage points (51.3% votes for Sirisena against 47.6% for Rajapaksa) may not be
considered huge, but it was comfortable and decisive.