The election of a new president is underway Sri Lanka with the convocation of the Parliament to officially start the process in the midst of a crisis.
The resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been accepted by Parliamentafter he fled to Singapore to escape anti-government protesters who had occupied his official residence and office.
More than 100 police and security forces with assault rifles were deployed on the road leading to Parliament todayhaving set up barricades to prevent possible riots.
MPs are expected to elect a new president in a week, with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, a Rajapaksa ally, sworn in as acting president until then. Wickremesinghe, whose ouster the protesters are also demanding, was yesterday chosen as the ruling party’s presidential candidate, raising the possibility of further protests if elected.
Residents have been protesting for months in Sri Lanka, protesting the country’s dire economic situationwith the protests escalating about a week ago, when hundreds of thousands of people occupied government buildings in Colombo, blaming the Rajapaksa family and its allies for soaring inflation, shortages of basic foods, corruption.
Queues at gas stations, where people can wait days for fuel, are now commonplace in the country of 22 million people, while foreign reserves have almost been depleted and inflation last month climbed to 54.6%. .
Today Sri Lanka received the first of three fuel shipments, as announced by Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera. They are the first shipments of fuel to arrive in the country in about three weeks. A second cargo of diesel will arrive within the day, while a cargo of gasoline is expected on Tuesday. “Payments for all 3 have been completed,” he said via Twitter.
Source: News Beast
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