After winning a decades-long war in 2009, President Mahinda Rajpakse leveraged his popularity to assume greater powers for himself by amending the Constitution, making him virtually leader-for-life. Could this lead to one-party rule? And what will this mean for Sri Lanka and its Tamil minority?

Sri Lanka’s political trajectory is worrisome – it is assumed that economic development will blunt political aspirations and grievances. Civil and political rights are at best considered irrelevant.