COLOMBO: Tens of thousands of supporters of sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe blocked roads in Sri Lanka’s capital on Tuesday, stepping up a showdown with a former strongman accused of rights abuses — who also claims to head the country’s government.

Wickremesinghe left his official residence for the first time since Friday to condemn President Maithripala Sirisena for dismissing him and appointing Mahinda Rajapakse, a former president accused of grave human rights violations and corruption.

Wickremesinghe’s party said about 100,000 people flooded the streets, while police sources estimated 25,000 even as scores of buses brought more demonstrators to the biggest rally since the constitutional crisis erupted.

The army of followers chanted “Down With the Rogue PM” as they targeted Rajapakse, who Sirisena has brought back into frontline politics as his prime minister.

“We are against the sacking, the people did not vote for Sirisena to act in this manner,” Wickremesinghe told supporters from a makeshift stage. “We will resist what the president has done.” Parliament speaker Karu Jayasuriya has warned that the crisis could lead to a “bloodbath” on the streets if the assembly does not hold a vote.

But the rally remained peaceful, watched by more than 2,600 police and special task force commandos, before it dispersed. Behind the scenes, the rivals battled to tempt lawmakers from opposing sides to bolster their numbers if a vote is held.

Rajapakse, 72, gave four legislators from Wickre­mesinghe’s party ministerial portfolios in his cabinet after persuading them to defect on Monday.

Another defected on Tuesday and was made a state minister but Rajapakse was unable to name a full cabinet.

Wickremesinghe has also convinced at least two lawmakers from Sirisena’s camp to join his United National Party.

Following the latest defection, Wickremesinghe has 104 MPs in the 225-seat chamber while Rajapakse and Sirisena together have 99. A majority of the 22 remaining MPs are expected to back Wickremesinghe in any vote but the horse-trading is sure to intensify, observers said.

A deputy minister in Wickremesinghe’s administration, Ranjan Rama­nayake, accused China of paying for Rajapakse — who favoured a pro-Beijing policy during his decade-long tenure as president — to buy legislators.

“I am telling China not to spend their millions to buy MPs in Sri Lanka. They want to buy the country wholesale,” he said.

The Chinese embassy in Colombo denied the claims in a statement to AFP.

“Recent allegations about China by MP Ranjan Ramanayake are groundless and irresponsible,” the statement said, adding that Beijing follows “the principle of non-interference in other country’s internal affairs”. With Sirisena showing no sign of lifting the parliamentary suspension which runs until Nov 16, Wickremesinghe’s finance minister Mangala Samar­aweera said the president was trying to buy time to secure votes for Rajapakse.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2018