COLOMBO/ CHENNAI: After months of relentless pressure from the citizens, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa finally decided to leave as he signed a letter of resignation on Monday, Sri Lankan daily Daily Mirror reported.
President Gotabaya will submit the resignation letter on July 13 and the Speaker of Parliament will announce his resignation on Wednesday, according to reports.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has already met with the heads of the Army, Naval and Air Force. He is expected to leave the country after his resignation. His younger brother Basil Rajapaksa, who served as the finance minister, was earlier stopped from boarding a Dubai-bound flight by the agitators amid the worst-ever crisis in the Island nation.
In a recent news clip aired by Lankan channel NewsFirst, it was seen the demonstrators stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence in Colombo and slept on his bed, using his belongings.
The nomination for the presidency will be open on July 19 and the Lankan parliament will elect President on July 20. The main opposition party SJB has proposed the name of Sajith Premadasa for the presidential post but it will require more than 113 MPs’ support to elect Premadasa as the President.
Despite his house being set ablaze by a mob, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will also run for the Presidential post. Wickremesinghe has proposed forming an all-party government.
India has clarified that it’s not deploying forces in Sri Lanka. In a tweet on Sunday, the Indian High Commission to Colombo said, “The High Commission would like to categorically deny speculative reports in sections of media and social media about India sending her troops to Sri Lanka. These reports and such views are also not in keeping with the position of
the Government of India.”
Since the wake of the economic catastrophe on the Island, India has been sending aid to the crisis-hit nations in addition to financial support. New Delhi will send four shipments of fuels in the coming days. Several countries including Japan have refrained from supporting Sri Lanka citing “a risk of financial assistance to Sri Lanka being mismanaged”.