Gotabaya Rajapaksa Biography: Wife, Family, Age, Political Career, Net Worth, siblings and other details

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Biography: Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a Sri Lanka politician and a former military officer who served as the eighth President of Sri Lanka from 2019 to 2022. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was born to a prominent political family from the Southern Province. He took early retirement from the army and moved into the field of information technology before he immigrated to the United States in 1998. Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka in 2005, to assist his brother in his presidential campaign.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in 2018, had emerged as a possible candidate for the 2019 Presidential election in Sri Lanka, which he successfully contested. Gotabaya Rajapaksa became the first President of Sri Lanka in 2019 with a military background and also the first President who had not held an elected office in prior. On July 9, 2022, Gotabaya Rajapaksa informed the Speaker of the Parliament that he will resign as the President on July 13, 2022.

Know more about Gotabaya Rajapaksa political career, family, net worth, wife, siblings and other details.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flies out of the country, reports AFP News Agency quoting officials

(File Pic) pic.twitter.com/vb7LLlTJTk

— ANI (@ANI) July 12, 2022

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Biography

Gotabaya Rajapaksa wife, early life, family

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was born in Palatuwa in the Matara District, as the fifth of nine siblings. He was brought up in the Weeraketiya in the Southern Rural district of Hambantota.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa hails from a well-known political family in Sri Lanka. His father D.A. Rajapaksa was a prominent politician, Member of Parliament, independence agitator, and the Cabinet Minister of Agriculture and Land in Wijeyananda Dahanayake’s government. Mahinda Rajapaksa, his elder brother, was first elected to the Parliament as a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He later became the Prime Minister in 2004 and the President of Sri Lanka in 2005.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Wife

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is married to Ioma Rajapaksa. They have a son Manoj Rajapaksa who married Sewwandi Liyanaarachchi in 2011.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Political Career

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Army career (1971 to 1991)

Gotabaya Rajapaksa had joined the Sri Lankan Army as a Cadet officer on April 26, 1971, when the country was still a dominion of the British Commonwealth and was in the midst of the 1971 JVP insurrection.

Following his retirement, Gotabaya Rajapaksa read for a postgraduate diploma in information technology from Colombo University and joined informatics in 1992. He migrated to the United States in 1998 and worked at Loyola Law School, in Los Angeles, the US as a Systems Integrator and Unix Solaris Administrator.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa 2019 Presidential Campaign

It was a widely speculated claim that Gotabaya Rajapaksa would be contesting the 2020 Sri Lanka elections. However, the claim was later denied by Rajapaksa who claimed that he will accept the Presidency if was offered the candidacy.

On August 11, 2019, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be their candidate for the 2019 Presidential elections.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa won a majority in the predominantly Sinhalese areas of the island which included the districts of Matara, Galle, Kalutara, and Badulla, while the opposition candidate Sajith Premadasa gained a majority in the areas dominated by Tamil and Muslim minorities, which had been affected by the Civil War.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Net worth

The net worth of the 8th President of Sri Lanka is estimated to be $10 million. The net worth of the Sri Lankan president came under criticism after the country was plunged into an economic crisis leading to widespread protests all over the country.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa economic crisis and downfall as Sri Lankan President

Sri Lanka is facing an ongoing economic crisis that started in 2019. It is the island country’s worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948. The crisis has further led to unprecedented levels of inflation, near depletion of foreign exchange reserves, and an unprecedented increase in the prices of daily use commodities.

The economic crisis triggered popular protests in parts of Sri Lanka and on the night of March 31, the protestors charged at Rajapaksa’s private residence which further turned violent.

On July 9, 2022, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence in Colombo before the protestors broke through the police barricades and entered the premises of the Presidential house. Later in the evening, the Speaker of the Parliament confirmed that Gotabaya Rajapaksa will resign his office on July 13, 2022.

On July 9 and 10, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s whereabouts were unknown to the public. On July 11, the Speaker of the Parliament announced that the President is still in the country and on July 12 it was reported by Gotabaya Rajapaksa was blocked from leaving the country by immigration staff at the airport.

It was reported in the early hours of July 13 that Rajapaksa has left Sri Lanka via military aircraft for the Maldives.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Awards and Honours

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