Energetic young men splashed around in the pool, one theatrically soaping himself up as the crowd cheered, Sri Lankans danced in an opulent hallway, and the famous Papale Band played festive tunes on trumpets and drums.
These scenes were broadcast around the world on July 13, 2022, hours after crowds seized the presidential palace, forcing then-leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.
It was a triumphant moment for them.
Hundreds of thousands of people from across Sri Lanka defied a nationwide curfew and braved tear gas and water cannons to peacefully march to the presidential palace, demanding that President Rajapaksa step down.
He had resisted calls for him to step down for weeks, even though his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa had already resigned as prime minister to calm public anger.
Months of protests, known in Sinhala as “alagaraya” (struggle), culminated in the July 2022 incident that led to Rajapaksa’s abrupt and humiliating resignation.
Just a few months ago, such an event would have been unthinkable.
The Rajapaksa clan, led by Mahinda, has wielded great power over Sri Lankan politics for many years.
During his first term, President Mahinda Rajapaksa led a bloody end to Sri Lanka’s civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels, a victory that established him as a “savior” among the country’s Sinhalese majority and led his most ardent supporters to liken him to an emperor.
As he grew in power, so did his family: He appointed his brother Gotabaya as defense secretary, a position critics say he used ruthlessly, and his two other brothers, Basil and Chamal, became finance minister and speaker of parliament respectively.
The family appealed to a majority Sinhalese nationalist base that has helped them survive years of allegations of corruption, economic mismanagement, widespread human rights abuses and the suppression of dissent.
But that all changed in 2022, when a series of policies triggered the country’s worst economic crisis in history.
Seventeen years after Mahinda was first sworn in as president, crowds in Sri Lanka celebrated the downfall of the Rajapaksa family, convinced that the clan was finished.
But was that really the case?
Two years later, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son, Namal, is running in the September 21 presidential election.
“It’s bad enough that people who were pushed out after the Alagaraya (mass protests) are standing in these elections,” Rakshan Sandalwan, a university student who took part in the protest, told BBC Sinhala. “What’s even worse is that some people might actually vote for a member of their family.”
Namal is not the only Rajapaksa to return to the stage.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa himself, who was chased out of the country by angry protesters, did not remain abroad for long.
He returned to Singapore and then Thailand just 50 days after his ignominious departure, where he was given the perks of being a former president: a luxury bungalow and security, all at the government’s expense.
Opposition politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed president to serve the remaining two years of Rajapaksa’s term, with the support of the family-led Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP), which holds a two-thirds majority in parliament.
Before his unexpected elevation, Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister, was the only member of parliament elected from the United National Party, which was disastrously defeated in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
He has focused on rebuilding the economy, but has been accused of shielding the Rajapaksa family, allowing them to be restructured and shielding them from prosecution, charges he denies.
Hours after Wickremesinghe was sworn in as president, troops were deployed to clear crowds at Colombo’s Galle Face, the epicenter of the protests.
Dozens of soldiers rushed to the scene and dismantled the protesters’ tents and other belongings. In the months that followed, people were jailed after they broke into the presidential palace and emerged with “souvenirs” – bedsheets or bizarre mementos – to remember that historic day.
“Ranil shielded the Rajapaksas from public anger, ensured the continuity of an SLPP-led parliament, cabinet and government, took no steps to stop corruption and even stifled progress on investigations into the Rajapaksas,” said political scientist Jayadeva Uyangoda.
“He also shielded them from international pressure to hold them accountable for serious human rights abuses and war-related allegations.”
That has angered many Sri Lankans, who are suffering a cost-of-living crisis and enduring further hardship from reforms aimed at reviving a stagnant economy.
Although there are no shortages or power outages, prices are soaring, and the government has also scrapped subsidies for electricity and other necessities and cut welfare spending.
Meanwhile, taxes have risen as Prime Minister Wickremesinghe sharply increased tax rates and widened the net to shore up public revenues.
Some economists say the painful measures are necessary to restore macroeconomic stability to the country as it seeks to restructure its international debt and comply with the terms of a bailout package agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The country’s foreign exchange reserves have risen to about $6 billion from just $20 million at the height of the crisis, and inflation is running at about 0.5%.
But in the real world, the impact is devastating for millions of ordinary Sri Lankans.
A survey of 10,000 households by policy research institute Lilne Asia estimates that 3 million people will fall below the poverty line by 2023, with the number of poor rising from 4 million to 7 million.
These families are starving and have stopped sending their children to school in their desperate need for more money.
The Rajapaksas deny any wrongdoing, but in 2023 the country’s highest court ruled that the family, including Gotabaya and Mahinda, were directly responsible for the mismanagement of the economy between 2019 and 2022, which led to the crisis.
Nimesha Hansini, a university student in Colombo, told BBC Sinhala that she felt the Rajapaksa family was “directly responsible for the economic crisis due to financial fraud perpetrated under the guise of development schemes during their rule”.
“But nothing has changed for them. Their political power has only weakened,” she added.
“There’s not much to say about them,” said Rashmi, a farmer in Hambantota, Mr Rajapaksa’s traditional stronghold. “We are suffering because of their actions. We voted for them before and it will never happen again.”
It is these minds that Namal Rajapaksa wants to change, he wants to win back his base of support.
His campaign has centred around the achievements of his father, Mahinda, who is still seen as a hero by some Sri Lankans.
This comes despite international calls for him to be prosecuted for war crimes. The United Nations estimates that 100,000 people, including 40,000 Tamil civilians, were killed by Sri Lankan forces in the final stages of the conflict, but Mahinda Rajapaksa has never been convicted of any wrongdoing and denies such charges.
Photos of Mahinda have graced Namal’s election rallies and social media posts include illustrations of him with his father as a child.
He even tried to accentuate the resemblance between the two men by growing a moustache and donning Mahinda’s trademark red shawl.
Many of his campaign posts come across as defiant: “We don’t shy away from challenges. In fact, we welcome them. This is something I learned from my father.”
Another post described him as “patriotic, brave and forward-thinking.”
“Namal Rajapaksa seems to think that by continuing his father’s legacy he will be able to protect and reap the benefits of his father’s constituency and he is not wrong,” Prof Uyangoda said.
“This is one way of rebuilding the SLPP’s shattered electoral base.”
But many voters don’t seem to believe that, and opinion polls don’t show Namal as a serious contender for the prime minister’s post.
Comments on Namal’s campaign posts on his Instagram account were scathing: “Latest Rajapaksa scion running for president? Truly a family business.”
Reactions on the ground were more scathing: “I will never vote for Namal Rajapaksa. The hard years we have lived through are a curse on that family,” HM Sepalika, a resettled villager in Vavuniya in the north, told BBC Sinhala.
“The people of the country hated the Rajapaksas and came together to wage this struggle, but they are still greedy and power-hungry and are coming back to ask people to vote for them,” said Nishanti Harapitiya, a shop assistant in Hambantota.
Some say Namal cannot be taken seriously.
“Why should he ask us to vote? He is a kid with no experience. Who will vote for him? He will not be elected president unless someone takes pity on his father and votes for him,” said Mohammed Haradeen, a trader in Kattankudy in eastern Sri Lanka.
Attention is currently mainly focused on three candidates: Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Left National People’s Party coalition, and Wickremesinghe, who is running as an independent.
But Namal Rajapaksa may be in for a longer fight.
Recent elections have seen family members and allies of once unpopular dictators, such as Bongbong Marcos in the Philippines and Prabowo Subianto in Indonesia, make major political comebacks.
“He wants to remain politically relevant, protect the SLPP’s support base and remain politically active until 2029,” Uyangoda said.
Rakshan Sandalwan, a university student who took part in the protest, agreed.
“Namal is not running this time to become president but to do the groundwork needed for 2029,” he said.
“But if the people do not act wisely, they themselves will produce another Rajapaksa president.”