Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa Gotabaya on Thursday posted his abdication letter to the Speaker, soon after he was allowed by Singapore to enter the megacity-state on a” private visit”, ending the suspension over his future in the face of the massive public rebellion against his government’s mishandling of the frugality.
Parliament is anticipated to name a new full-time chairman in the coming week, Rajapaksa Gotabaya
and current acting PM, Ranil Wickremesinghe, is the ruling party’s first choice.
A Saudi Airlines flight-SV 788-carrying Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore from the Maldives, where he’d fled early Wednesday without relinquishing as promised to avoid the possibility of arrest by the new government.
Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena’s media clerk Indunil Abeywardena on Thursday night said an abdication letter from President Rajapaksa has been entered through the Sri Lanka High Commission in Singapore.
” The Speaker wishes to inform that a sanctioned statement on this would be made hereafter( Friday) after the verification process and legal formalities,” Abeywardena said in a brief statement.
The Speaker wants to see the original hand. The original will be brought to Colombo from
Singapore in the coming available flight by a political officer, sources said. The development comes on a day when anti-government protesters blazed to vacate some executive structures, including the President’s House and the PM Office, which they’ve been enwrapping since April 9 demanding Rajapaksa’s ouster.
With Rajapaksa’s abdication, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be the President.
Rajapaksa Gotabaya , the 73- time-old leader who had promised to abdicate on Wednesday rather appointed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as the Acting President hours after he fled to the Maldives, raising the political extremity and driving a fresh surge of demurrers in the islet nation.
From the Maldives, he went to Singapore on Thursday. A prophet for the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs verified that Rajapaksa has been” allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit”.
He has not asked for shelter and neither has he been granted any shelter, the prophet said, adding Singapore generally doesn’t grant requests for shelter.
Speaker Abeywardena before Thursday informed Rajapaksa that he should submit his abdication letter as soon as possible, or differently he’ll consider other options to remove him from the office.
A prophet for the Sri Lanka Parliament said that given that the President hadn’t yet proffered his letter of abdication, it’s uncertain if Parliament would be convened on Friday.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, who’s now Acting President, on Wednesday informed the Speaker to nominate a Prime Minister who’s respectable to both the Government and Opposition.
President Rajapaksa’s sisters-former high minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and finance minister Basil Rajapaksa- on Thursday gave an undertaking to the Supreme Court through their attorneys that they won’t leave the country until the Fundamental Rights solicitation filed against them is heard on Friday, the Daily Mirror reported.
A five-judge bench of the Lankan Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Justice Buwaneka Aluwihare, Justice Priyantha Jayawardena, Justice Vijith Malalgoda, and Justice LTB Dehideniya are listed to hear on Friday the solicitation against the two members of the quondam important Rajapaksa family.
Mahinda, the primogenitor of the Rajapaksa clan, abdicated from the post of high minister on May 9, hours after his sympathisers attacked anti-government protesters outside President Rajapaksa’s office.
The 76- time-old former tyrannizer was barred by a Sri Lankan court from travelling abroad in May in view of examinations against them for the deadly attack on anti-government protesters in Colombo.
Basil, a US passport holder, abdicated as finance minister in early April as road demurrers boosted against deaths of energy, food and other musts and quit his seat in congress in June.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Army in a statement prompted the protesters to desist from violence incontinently or be prepared to face the” consequences”, advising that the security forces are” legitimately empowered” to exercise force.
At least 84 people were hospitalised when protesters clashed with the security forces at the PM office and at the main access junction to Parliament on Wednesday after President Rajapaksa fled the country. The police fired tear gas and water cannons at the mob who were trying to break walls and enter the defined zone.
Authorities on Wednesday assessed a curfew in the Western Province following the eruption of violence. The curfew was lifted in the morning. But it had to be reimposed amid fears of violence as there was no word from Rajapaksa on his abdication.
The Army said that despite its repeated prayers the” unruly protesting mobs” on Wednesday tried to forcefully enter the Parliament complex aggressively went on draining and attacking the colours on duty using clubs, iron rods, monuments, helmets, etc. and snared TWO T- 56 munitions with security rounds and caused injuries to a dozen of Army labor force.
It said the army colors used minimal force and brought the situation under control.
Wednesday’s demonstrators were more directed at Wickremesinghe. Calls for his abdication were boosted after he was appointed the acting chairman. Political party leaders are asking him to step down so that Speaker Abeywardena can take control as acting chairman.
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unknown profitable fermentation, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions floundering to buy food, drug, energy and other rudiments.
