Who are the Rajapaksas?

The Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lankan politics for much of the past two decades, and in recent years they have increasingly run the island nation's government as a family business.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">D.A. Rajapaksa, the family patriarch, was a lawmaker in the 1950s and 1960s. But it was Mahinda Rajapaksa, his son, who helped cement the family's rise to prominence, becoming prime minister and then president of two terms from 2005 to 2015.

During his tenure as president, Mahinda Rajapaksa ended three decades of civil war in the country by crushing the Tamil Tiger insurgency through brutal military force, in a campaign that has led to accusations of widespread human rights abuses. His brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa served as his powerful defense secretary.

The Rajapaksa were briefly ousted from government after losing in the 2015 elections, but they returned to power with Gotabaya Rajapaksa as their 2019 presidential candidate.

He won a landslide victory, in an election campaign that mixed nationalist appeals to Buddhist Sinhalese, the majority ethnic group in Sri Lanka, and depictions of him as the strongman the country needed after the deadly Easter Sunday terror attacks a few months before the elections.

Short time afterwards, he brought his older brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa back into government as prime minister and handed key posts to several other family members. As the country's economy seemed headed for a crash, he appointed his brother Basil Rajapaksa finance minister last July.

As protests intensified , President Rajapaksa forced family members in April to give up their government seats.

Officials close to him said he was considering completing of his mandate as a matter of honour. But opposition members and critics said the president was also trying to buy time and ensure the protection of the great Rajapaksa dynasty.