Ten years ago, BBC journalist Chris Morris sat across from Sri Lanka's former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and asked him: "People seem to be scared of you, should they be?"

Key points: Sri Lanka will today elect its eighth president

Sri Lanka will today elect its eighth president A devastating terror attack in April have prompted calls for a strong leader

A devastating terror attack in April have prompted calls for a strong leader The favourite to win, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is an alleged war criminal

That very question is one many Sri Lankans will be asking themselves today as they prepare to vote in an election in which Mr Rajapaksa — an alleged war criminal — is expected to emerge as the country's president.

Sri Lanka has endured a tumultuous 12 months — a constitutional crisis last year was the prelude to a string of deadly Easter Sunday bombings that left 259 people dead.

Those attacks were partly blamed on dysfunction within Sri Lanka's government, and reignited ethnic tensions that have plagued the island republic for decades.

An already-stagnant economy was then battered further by a decline in tourism that followed.

It is against this backdrop that today's election is being fought, and it is part of the reason why many Sri Lankans are finding the allure of a strongman candidate like Mr Rajapaksa compelling.

Who are the two leading candidates?

Frontrunner Gotabaya Rajapaksa (right) and opposing candidate Sajith Premadasa are among dozens of contenders. ( AP: Eranga Jayawardena )

Sri Lanka's current President Maithripala Sirisena's tenure has been fraught with disappointment, and after realising he could not garner enough support, decided not to run again.

Mr Rajapaksa served as defence secretary during his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa's polarising tenure as president from 2005 to 2014.

His role in ending a 30-year conflict with Tamil separatists in 2009 is divisive — he stands accused of overseeing indiscriminate killings of both civilians and combatants, and later of political assassinations.

Yet in a field of more than 30 candidates, Mr Rajapaksa is the current frontrunner.

Standing in his way is Sajith Premadasa, a current minister from the ruling United National Front (UNF) coalition.

He has run an energetic campaign focused on poverty eradication and women's rights, but his candidacy is marred by five years of bitter government infighting and unfulfilled promises.

As a result, Sri Lanka now looks poised to welcome back a controversial political dynasty it ousted only five years ago.

Easter Sunday bombings give rise to a Rajapaksa return

Security officers stand in front of St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, after bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels on Easter. ( ABC News: Siobhan Heanue )

The April 21 Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka shook the country to its core.

The multi-pronged attack — which left two Australians dead — was carried out by Islamic extremists, thrusting the nation's nearly 2 million Muslims into the spotlight.

"April 21 really did shape the country, and soon there was significant inter-communal violence across Sri Lanka," Bhavani Forseka, a senior researcher at the Centre for Alternative Policies in Colombo, told the ABC.

"That has directly impacted calls for a strong leader."

Mr Rajapaksa answered that call, announcing his candidacy less than a week after the bombings, and promising security to a nation racked by fear and division.

His credentials as defence secretary during the country's brutal civil war are expected to help him here while his backers have mined ethnic and religious fault lines for political expediency.

Muslims and Christians are religious minorities in the Buddhist-majority nation. ( ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser )

"Part of the strategy by the Rajapaksas is to strengthen their support among the Sinhalese by encouraging others to present Muslims as a threat to the Sinhala character of the country," Alan Keenan, the Sri Lanka project director for the International Crisis Group, told the ABC.

Mr Rajapaksa is hailed as one of the architects in ending the country's bloody civil war — that's made him, and his brother Mahinda, revered figures among much of the country's Sinhalese Buddhist majority, but deeply distrusted by Tamils, who are predominantly Hindu.

"Tamils have memories of the extreme suffering that they experienced during the war. The Government shelled civilians, executed people and disappeared thousands," Mr Keenan said.

The Rajapaksas have always championed a Sinhalese-centric brand of Sri Lankan nationalism, and neither the country's Muslims nor Tamils, who together make up roughly 20 per cent of the population, are likely to warm to Gotabaya's campaign.

"If Gotabaya can win 70 to 75 per cent of the Sinhalese vote, he will win — if he only wins 55 or 60 per cent, it will be close."

'Literally thousands of disappearances and murders'

When Mahinda was president, his family controlled 50 per cent of Sri Lanka's public spending. ( AFP: Ishara S Kodikara )

But even among the country's Sinhalese, there are many who distrust the Rajapaksas.

Many commentators say Mahinda ran the country like a familial fiefdom: the Rajapaksa family controlled as much as 50 per cent of the country's public spending when Mahinda was president.

"One brother, Chamal, was speaker, [another brother] Basil was an important minister, Mahinda's son Nama is an MP — cousins, uncles, all of them held senior positions," Mr Keenan said.

And Mahinda would likely return as prime minister under a Gotabaya presidency, exacerbating fears the two could turn Sri Lanka into a kleptocracy.

The brazen nepotism of Mahinda's rule happened alongside a campaign of brutal political repression.

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The Rajapaksas won the war, but they quickly lost the peace — even after winning in a landslide at elections in 2010, they still found enemies everywhere.

"Gotabaya presided over the police and the military during a period when there were literally thousands of unexplained disappearances and murders," Mr Keenan said.

The term "white vanning" entered the Sri Lankan vocabulary in response to journalists, political opponents and prominent Tamils being rounded up in vans and then never returning.

Complicating matters from a foreign policy perspective, China spent years courting Mahinda Rajapaksa's government, and eventually funded a number of controversial infrastructure projects, most notably the Hambantota port development.

That port failed as a commercial venture and was eventually handed over to the Chinese with a 99-year lease to ease Sri Lanka's debt burden.

Mr Keenan says that spooked international observers who feared Beijing could one day build a military foothold in close proximity to some of the world's major shipping lanes.

"Gotabaya Rajapaksa will tilt more in the Chinese direction, and I think the Chinese have been more explicitly pro-Rajapaksa than they were in the past."

Sajith Premadasa's softer 'man of the people' image

Mr Premadasa has promised his supporters poverty reduction and improvement in women's rights.

While the Rajapaksas often loom larger than life in Sri Lanka — Gotabaya's opponent Sajith Premadasa is cut from another famous political pedigree.

His father Ranasinghe Premadasa served as both prime minister and president of Sri Lanka, and was assassinated in office by a Tamil Tiger suicide bombing in 1993.

He has presented a softer image than Mr Rajapaksa, championing issues like poverty reduction and women's rights.

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"He's pitched himself as a man of the people, even more than Gotabaya," Mr Keenan said.

"As Housing Minister, he spent a lot of time in rural areas and apparently convincing a lot of people that he really cares."

But while trying to echo his father's legacy, it is the failed promises of his party's current government to ease people's socio-economic woes that could derail him.

Ms Forseka said the current coalition government "came with ambitious promises … but they're leaving with anger, frustration and disillusionment".

Promises of reconciliation and investigations into the controversial end to the civil war never eventuated.

The economy stagnated and members of the coalition disagreed publicly and constantly, culminating in events last year that saw incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena try to controversially manoeuvre to install Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister.

That move eventually failed but it was a potent signal to the electorate of the current government's inability to govern.

'New political culture' vs 'new style of governance'

Supporters of Gotabaya Rajapaksa at a rally of his on the outskirts of Colombo. ( AP: Eranga Jayawardena )

While Gotabaya Rajapaksa is poised as the favourite to win, the election could be tight.

A slew of other candidates could determine the result via preferences if either of the frontrunners fail to win a majority.

Mr Premadasa has signalled that he would not reinstate the experienced but unpopular Ranil Wickremasinghe as Prime Minister.

"Sajith has promised a new political culture, a new set of leaders, but it's a promise made that we don't actually know will happen," Ms Forseka said.

Meanwhile, Mr Keenan said Mr Rajapaksa had "promised a new style of governance, which he says will be a good one".

"It will be technocratic, it'll be efficient, it'll get things done."

Few Sri Lankans doubt that a Rajapaksa government could get things done, but many also fear it would come at the expense of vulnerable minorities and fragile civil liberties.

Sri Lankans could once again gamble on hope and elect Sajith Premadasa, but years of failed government and heightened security fears could see them fall back into the arms of a strongman.