The mid-term presidential elections held in Sri Lanka on 8 January 2015, not only brought to power a new president but also the prospects of an equitable and inclusive state with the democratic and human rights of the citizens of every community restored. The media, battered during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s eight-year tenure, also hope to work in a free atmosphere. Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, altered to suit the former president’s personal ambitions, is also expected to experience a course correction. The new dispensation’s approach to the historically intractable ethnic Tamil question has been revealed and Colombo has stated that it is not averse to United Nations assistance in inquiring into alleged human rights violations during the final phase of the civil war. The immediate task before the new government, however, is to tackle a parliament in which the majority of members are beholden to Rajapaksa and his brothers.
