Ajith Rajapaksa, a Mahinda Rajapaksa relative running for Provincial Council in 2009.
Mahinda Rajapaksa (via the UPFA) has declared (previously) a somewhat arbitrary rule that members of the same family cannot hold both Cabinet and Chief Ministerial positions. I suppose the logic here is that one family can’t have power at both provincial and central levels. This was recently demonstrated when S.M. Chandrasena resigned from his Cabinet ministry so that his brother, S.M. Ranjith could become Chief Minister of the North-Central Province. I’m not for nepotism per se, but this is still an arbitrary rule which A) ignores the fact that S.M. Ranjith had the highest preferential votes anyways and B) doesn’t apply to the first family, where all the power is.
I mean, Mahinda is President, Basil is a Minister, Chamal is Speaker Of The House and Gotabaya is Defence Secretary. Chamal’s son (Mahinda’s nephew) Shashindra Rajapaksa is Chief Minister of the Uva Province. I guess it’s a bit like Israel telling other people they can’t have ‘illegal’ nuclear weapons, because they want to maintain a monopoly on that.
Mahinda doesn’t count as a cabinet minister cuz he’s the head honcho and all. Chamal and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named aren’t cabinet ministers either. Ergo, Basil is the only cabinet minister among the Rajapaksa brothers. And none of his kids are cabinet or chief ministers, so it’s all kosher.
mahinda DOES count as a cabinet minister, seeing as how he holds the finance and defence portfolios (plus whatever else). being the head honcho doesnt automatically allow you to hold cabinet positions. that’s just the BS JR and them made up.