A lot rides on Sri Lanka elections

The winner of its upcoming presidential elections could alter the nature of India's relationship with that country

In a few hours, Sri Lanka will have a new President, its eighth executive president. In 2015, an unlikely coalition of rival parties — the Left-leaning Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the free market supporter United National Party (UNP) — that was cobbled together by incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena and supported by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, defeated incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa of the Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP) and led to the formation of the first National Unity Government (NUG). 

This began to unravel two years ago. The conflict and power struggle climaxed when Sirisena, in a constitutional coup, dismissed Wickremesinghe