Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has informed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that he will resign, the latter’s office said today, after thousands of protesters stormed their official residences.
After massive protests amid the height of the crippling economic crisis, the speaker of parliament announced that Mr Rajapaksa intended to resign the day after Wednesday. However, the head of state himself has not expressed himself.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has said he will also resign, in order for a transitional government in which all parties will be represented to take power.
Leaders of the protest movement have declared that the crowds will continue occupying the official residences of the president and the prime minister in Colombo until they resign.
The situation in the island’s capital and largest city was comparatively calm today as hundreds of people marched to the president’s offices and official residence. The police didn’t even try to stop them.
“We’re not going anywhere until this president is gone and until we have a government that the people accept,” said Jude Hansana, 31, who has been protesting outside the presidency since April. “The people’s struggle is for wider political reforms. Not just for the president to go. This is just the beginning.”
Messrs. Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe were not in their official residences when the protesters stormed the buildings. They have not been seen in public since Friday. Their whereabouts are unknown. A private residence of Mr. Wickremesinge in a wealthy district in Colombo was set on fire. Three suspects were arrested.
Constitutional experts believe that after the president and prime minister formally submit their resignations, the speaker of parliament will be sworn in as acting president until Sri Lanka’s national delegation votes and elects a new president, ending Mr. Rajapaksa’s term early within 30 days, who it would normally be completed in 2024.
Much of the population blames the powerful Rajapaksa political family for the collapse of the country’s economy, which is based mainly on tourism and agriculture. The tourism sector was hit hard by the novel coronavirus pandemic, the primary sector by the ban on chemical fertilizers, which was later rescinded.
Sri Lanka’s finances collapsed due to mounting debt and the Rajapaksa government’s generous tax breaks. While foreign exchange reserves were rapidly depleted as fuel prices rose.
The Asian country is running out of dollars to import fuel, which has been rationed. Huge queues form at stores that still have cooking gas. Headline inflation in the country of 22 million people hit 54.6% last month; the central bank warns it could top 70% within months.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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