Colombo: Mahinda Rajapaksa is set to leave his official residence Thursday, a day after the enactment of a new Act of Parliament stripped the privileges of former presidents.
Rajapaksa’s residence is located in the posh Colombo residential area of Cinnamon Gardens.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, who will turn 80 in November, has been occupying the official residence since 2015. He was president from 2005 to 2015. He was also the prime minister from 2004 to 2005 and again from 2019 to 2022.
“He (Mahinda Rajapaksa) will leave for his house at Tangalle this afternoon”, an aide confirmed.
The Carlton House at Tangalle, 190 km south of here, in the Hambantota district, was where Rajapaksa had launched his political career in 1970.
During the public uprising in 2022, which ousted Mahinda’s younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president, both his Colombo residence and his private home at Tangalle were mobbed by the protesters. They were, however, unable to break into either of the buildings.
Wednesday, the Sri Lankan parliament voted 151-1 in favour of the bill to strip privileges for former presidents, one of the popular pre-election pledges by the incumbent National People’s Power (NPP) government.
The bill titled ‘Presidents’ Entitlement (Repeal) Act No 18 of 2025′ to repeal the Presidents’ Entitlement Act No 4 of 1986 became a law, a day after the Supreme Court ruled that the bill to withdraw presidential privileges extended to all former presidents and widows can be approved in parliament with just a simple majority.
The Supreme Court thus overruled an attempt by the Rajapaksas’ party, the Sri Lanka People’s Front, commonly known by its Sinhalese name Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), to thwart the bill by challenging its constitutionality.
The country currently has five living former presidents and a widow of another. Only three of them were availing themselves of the facilities when the government introduced the bill in parliament.
PTI
