Gotabaya Rajapaksa SLPP — Vistas of Prosperity (Sri Lanka)

Doctrine — stated goals and content

Right-populist Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist governance combining technocratic-military framing ('Viyathmaga' professionals, former officers in cabinet) with retail tax-cut populism. Core policy content: (i) November-December 2019 tax package — VAT 15%->8%, PAYE abolition, NBT abolition, WHT removal, VAT-threshold hike — collapsing tax-to-GDP from ~12% to ~8.3% by 2021; (ii) 29 Apr 2021 gazetted ban on chemical fertiliser and agrochemical imports forcing overnight organic-farming pivot mid-cropping cycle, producing ~20% rice yield loss and tea-export hit; (iii) CBSL monetary financing of fiscal deficit and forex-rate defence through 2020-2021 that exhausted reserves; (iv) 12 April 2022 pre-emptive suspension of external-debt service — first sovereign default in Sri Lankan history; (v) 20A constitutional amendment (Oct 2020) reversing the 19A independence-commissions architecture and re-concentrating executive power; (vi) Port City Colombo Economic Commission Act (2021) creating a special legal zone with its own regulator. Coherence line: nationalist mandate + revenue- collapsing tax populism + abrupt regulatory shock in agriculture + delayed IMF engagement -> terminal forex crisis -> Aragalaya. Popularity: 2019 presidential 52.3% / 6.9m votes; Aug 2020 parliamentary 145/225 SLPP seats plus allies approaching two-thirds; approval collapsed through Q1 2022 under 40%+ CPI inflation, queue lines for fuel/cooking-gas/medicines, and daily 12-hour blackouts; 9 July 2022 Presidential Secretariat/Palace storming by Aragalaya protesters; Gotabaya fled to Maldives then Singapore and formally resigned 14 July 2022 — first Sri Lankan president removed by popular uprising.