Sri Lanka’s President and Prime Minister agreed to resign from their post on Saturday after the countrymen broke into a severe turmoil. The protesters stormed into the official’s home and put on fire with the complaints against the nation’s economic crisis.
Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe confirmed the citizens about his departure from the seat once he gets replaced by new government. After that President Gotabaya Rajapaksha also said to step down on Wednesday. The public has created high pressure on the men as the country is suffering from acute shortage in food, fuel and other essentials of daily life.
Thousands of protesters entered Colombo, the capital, and rushed into Rajapaksha’s residence. Videos and images, viral in the social media, showed the exuberant crowd spattering into the garden pool, lying on beds and using their cellphone cameras to capture the rush moment.
People were seen to cook tea, while others issued statements from a conference room demanding for the resignation of the men.
Protesters gathered onto buses and trains to get to the capital. Security personnel tried to stop them, who pushed through fences to run across the lawns and inside the colonial-era building. The government spokesperson Mohan Samaranayake said he had no information about the president’s move.
The protesters later broke into Wickremesinghe’s office, leading to set it on fire. There is no information if the Prime Minister was present there at the time of the attack.
Later the police fired tear gas on the crowd who gathered at the president’s residence, waving flags, banging drums and putting up slogans. More than 30 people were hurt in Saturday’s chaos.
Speaker, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that Rajapaksha was informed that parliamentary leaders decided to request his leave from the office, and the president agreed to the condition. However, Rajapaksha will be staying temporarily for smooth procedure for power transaction.
He added “He asked me to inform the country that he will make his resignation on Wednesday the 13th, because there is a need to hand over power peacefully,”.
He also quoted, “Therefore there is no need for further disturbances in the country, and I urge everyone for the sake of the country to maintain peace to enable a smooth transition”.
Even though the countrymen wanted immediate resignation of Wickremesinghe, he announced to stay on his position until a new government formulated. He suggested the president to have an all-party government. Opposition parties were discussing the new government.
Rajapaksha appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in hope that his political diplomacy will revive the down trodden economic condition of Sri Lanka. But the shortage in fuel, medicine and cooking gas outraged the public. Authorities have also temporarily shuttered schools.
Wickremesinghe said that leaders are negotiating with IMF were complex because Sri Lanka was now a bankrupt state. The country is presently running on aid from India. Sri Lanka confirmed in April that it was refraining repayment of foreign loans due to shortage in foreign currency. Its total debt amounted to $51 billion, out of which Sri Lanka must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027.
The Rajapaksha dynasty, who have ruled Sri Lanka since the last two decades, has been accused by the protesters of mismanagement and severe corruption. The president’s elder brother resigned in May after the violent protest.
Sri Lanka Medical Council, the country’s top professional body, said hospitals were running with minimum resources and were not able to handle mass causalities. Protesters and religious leaders said Rajapaksha lost his directive.
U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung on Friday asked people to protest peacefully and called for the military and police “to grant peaceful protesters the space and security to do so.”
Chung tweeted, “Chaos and force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankan’s need right now,”.
