After an emergency meeting, Parliament speaker Mahindra Yapa Abhaywardene Rajapaksa and PM asked Ranil Wickremesinghe To resign immediately to make way for an all-party government.
“To ensure peaceful transition, the President said that he would step down on July 13,” Abhaywardhan said in a televised statement. Rajapaksa, who left his official residence on Friday, has gone underground as a precautionary measure ahead of the weekend’s protests. Wickremesinghe has also offered to resign and form an all-party government.
Earlier in the day, in notable scenes, protesters demanding Rajapaksa’s resignation packed the rooms and corridors of the presidential palace, splashing in the pool, helping with food from the kitchen and occupying four-poster beds. was seen to happen.
Hundreds of people gathered on the grounds of the colonial-era whitewashed residence, where some security personnel were visible. Soon after, Rajapaksa’s nearby beach office also fell into the hands of protesters. His office said that as night fell, protesters barged into Wickremesinghe’s private residence and set it on fire. The PM has been taken to a safe place.
Firefighters try to douse a fire at the private residence of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo (AP Photo)
Around 40 people, including two police officers, were injured and hospitalized during the protests.
in his letter, abhaywardene Rajapaksa that party leaders want him and Wickremesinghe to resign immediately, call parliament in seven days to appoint an acting president, and appoint an interim all-party government under a new prime minister with a majority in parliament . It was also decided to hold elections in a short time and form a new government.
The island nation of 22 million people is grappling with a severe foreign exchange crunch that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging it into its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948. Rising inflation, which reached a record 54.6% in June. And with 70% expected to reach in the coming months, it has imposed an enormous amount of hardship on the population.
Political instability may undermine talks with Sri Lanka International Monetary Fund It calls for a $3 billion bailout, restructuring of some foreign debt, and fundraising from multilateral and bilateral sources to ease the dollar drought.
Many blame the country’s decline on economic mismanagement by Rajapaksa and there have been months of peaceful protests demanding his resignation. Discontent has escalated in recent weeks as the cash-starved country has stopped receiving fuel shipments, forcing schools to close and rationing petrol and diesel for essential services.