The formal letter of resignation had arrived by post. Gotabya Rajapaksa is abroad. A successor should be found quickly.
Sri Lanka’s expatriate President Gotabaya Rajapaksa officially resigned on Friday. Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced in the capital Colombo that he had received and accepted the formal letter of resignation by mail. A successor should be found quickly, said Parliament President Abeywarden. According to his office, Rajapaksa had already emailed the letter on Thursday evening.
The people of Colombo cheered as the news broke. They danced and lit firecrackers. “We are the real power in this country,” said one of the demonstrators. Now the while Rajapaksas absence acting president and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to be re-sworn in as interim president. Parliament is scheduled to meet on Saturday to set a date for the election of a new president.
For months there have been regular protests on the island state south of India, sometimes accompanied by violence. The country is in one severe economic crisis and is heavily indebted. The 22 million inhabitants lack food, fuel and medicines. The reason is, among other things, a strong devaluation of the national currency, which made imports significantly more expensive. A lack of income from tourism, especially as a result of the corona pandemic, is also one of the reasons.
The population blames Rajapaksa for this. Demonstrators stormed the presidential residence at the weekend and parliament and the prime minister’s office on Wednesday, demanding Rajapaksa’s resignation. As a result of the unprecedented mass protests once morest the state leadership, Rajapaksa and his wife fled to the nearby Maldives in a military plane on Wednesday. On Thursday, the head of state, who had already been deprived of power, flew on to Singapore.
(APA/DPA)
