Three decades after his father was assassinated as Sri Lanka's leader, opposition chief Sajith Premadasa is a top contender to take on the role in this week's presidential elections. Premadasa, then a student in Britain, cut short his studies and entered politics after his father, Ranasinghe Premadasa, was killed by a Tamil suicide bomber during a 1993 May Day rally in the capital Colombo. On September 21, he will be among the front-runners in an expected three-way race for the South Asian island's top job -- the first vote since the 2022 economic meltdown when protesters ousted then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Premadasa, 57, has spent his life in politics, working his way up to become the deputy leader of the United National Party (UNP). But he split from the party in 2020, accusing his then-boss Ranil Wickremesinghe -- now his rival as the incumbent president seeking another term -- of being dictatorial. Both men are ideologically aligned, supporting free-market policies.
But Premadasa has pledged to reduce high-income taxes raised by Wickremesinghe to tackle the economic crisis. - 'Pad man' to 'bus man' - Premadasa was defeated in the 2019 presidential race by Rajapaksa. But Premadasa performed far better in parliamentary elections a year later, becoming the opposition leader with his party winning 54 seats.
Wickremesinghe's party, in contrast, won only one seat. The other key challenger is Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, 55, who had fought as a student leader a.