Sri Lanka is becoming a one-family state

USUALLY, WHEN people speak of an electoral landslide, they exaggerate. But the word aptly describes what happened in Sri Lanka on August 5th. The island nation’s voters all but buried the grand old party that had led an outgoing coalition, the United National Party, reducing its 106 members in the 225-seat parliament to a humiliating total of exactly one. They instead awarded a commanding 145 seats to a relative upstart, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, or People’s Party (SLPP), a vehicle for the powerful Rajapaksa family. With smaller parties now flocking to their support, the Rajapaksas have grasped the two-thirds majority they need to rewrite the constitution to their liking, something they have said they intend to do. One of Asia’s oldest and most durable democracies has in practice entered a period of one-party, one-family rule.

Alas, none of this comes as a surprise. The Rajapaksas are not new to politics. The father and uncle of the current head of the family, Mahinda Rajapaksa, were prominent leaders decades ago. Mahinda, a genial populist who is now prime minister, himself served two terms as a strongman president, from 2005 to 2015, appointing one brother to run the army and helping to install another as speaker of parliament. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who as defence chief brought the 26-year civil war to a bloody end in 2009, was...