Gotabaya Rajapaksa sends resignation letter

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his resignation on Thursday(14) shortly after reaching Singapore.

Sri Lanka’s speaker of parliament has received the letter of resignation from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa through the country’s embassy in Singapore, the parliamentary speaker’s office said.

Speaker, Mahida Yapa Abeywardene will make a formal announcement on Friday (15)  “after checking the accuracy of the document and fulfilling all legal requirements,” the speaker’s spokesman said.

Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives on Wednesday and left there for Singapore a day later.

Singapore allowed Rajapaksa to enter the city-state on a “private visit” and said there was no request for asylum from him who had promised to resign on Wednesday. A Saudi Airlines flight carrying Rajapaksa landed at the Singapore Changi International Airport in the evening. In response to the media queries, a spokesperson for the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs said has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum. Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum, the spokesperson added.

Sri Lanka’s Acting President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday asked Speaker Abeywardena to nominate a Prime Minister who is acceptable to both the government and the Opposition. In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe held a meeting with the Members of the Cabinet at his office on Monday.

All the ministers who participated in this meeting were of the opinion that as soon as there is an agreement to form an all-party government, they will hand over the responsibilities to that government, it said. Accordingly, the ruling party and the opposition must form an all-party government.

Wickremesinghe is under pressure to quit before the expected resignation of President Rajapaksa. The protesters who stormed Wickremesinghe’s office yesterday also tried to enter the Parliament compound. The police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters near the official residence of the speaker, police said.

A 26-year-old protester had died of breathing difficulties after being admitted to hospital. He was part of the group that stormed the prime minister’s office this morning where 35 others had also been injured.

President Rajapaksa on Wednesday fled to the Maldives from where he appointed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as the acting President, escalating the political crisis and triggering a fresh wave of protests in the country reeling under the worst financial crisis in decades.

Speaker Abeywardena said the vote for the new president will take place on July 20.

Wickremesinghe, who is now Acting President, yesterday declared a state of emergency in the country.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.

(with inputs from agencies)