Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa was born in Palatuwa in the Matara District, as the fifth of nine siblings, and was brought up in Weeraketiya in the southern rural district of See more

Early career
Rajapaksa joined the Sri Lankan Army as a cadet officer on 26 April 1971, when Sri Lanka was still a dominion of the See more

Following his return to civilian life, Rajapaksa read for a postgraduate diploma in information technology from the University of Colombo and joined Informatics, an IT firm based in Colombo as a Marketing Manager in 1992. He subsequently … See more

In order to assist his brother's presidential election campaign, Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka from the United States in 2005. He re obtained citizenship of Sri Lanka but kept his US citizenship. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was appointed to the post of Permanent Secretary of … See more

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is married to Ioma and has one son. Rajapaksa had dual Sri Lankan and US citizenship but had to renounce his US citizenship prior to running for president in 2019. His wife and son retain their US citizenship.
Alleged … See more

It was widely speculated and even claimed by several politicians that Gotabaya Rajapaksa would be contesting the 2020 elections. However, this was denied by Rajapaksa but claimed that he will accept if he was offered the candidacy. Fuelling speculation even … See more

Rajapaksa's inauguration took place at the Ruwanwelisaya in Anuradhapura on 18 November 2019. It is the first elected office Rajapaksa has held and he is the first non-career politician and former military officer to serve as president. Following the assumption of the … See more