SE NOS MUERE EL AMOR

As news broke of Gotabaya Rajapaksa's win, supporters and party workers

gathered at headquarters. The mood was cautious but many here are
relieved to see the Rajapaksa family back in office.

It's a family affair. Mahinda, Gotabaya's brother and the former President here for
10 years, is widely expected to be the next Prime Minister. The two brothers
appear side by side on election posters and banners.

"It's a victorious day for us," Sagala Abhayawickreme, part of a group of lawyers
who campaigned for the Rajapaksas, told me. "I worked for more than four years
for this."

She clearly sees Gotabaya as a man who gets things done. "We saw him as
defence secretary when he finished the 30-year war," she said, referring to the
defeat of the Tamil Tigers 10 years ago, a decisive - if controversial - end for which
Team Rajapaksa takes credit.
 Sri Lanka's controversial new president
 Rajapaksa wins presidential election

The Easter attacks simply wouldn't have happened on his watch, she added.

"I think it's a turning point in the history of Sri Lanka," said another Rajapaksa
supporter, lawyer Janaka Arunashantha. "With economy and national security, I
think the country will improve in every way in the next five years. We're very
hopeful with him."

Sri Lanka is still in shock, seven months after the bomb attacks by a cell of Islamist
militants which devastated the island's economy, blew apart the island's fragile
communal relations and was the final blow to public confidence in a government
already tarnished by in-fighting.

But the news will be greeted with quiet dismay by many in the minority
communities who voted overwhelmingly not for Mr Rajapaksa but his rival, Sajith
Premadasa. They see him as a more liberal, inclusive choice. In many Tamil
majority areas, such as the north, the vote was overwhelmingly for Mr Premadasa.
Unifying the different communities - and pursuing post-war reconciliation - will be a
daunting task.
In the last seven months, many Muslims say an underlying hate campaign against
them in recent years, fuelled by hardline Buddhist groups, has become overt. They
say their businesses have been boycotted, that they're openly insulted on the
street, that their children are called names at school.