- Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned as president after the uprising
- His letter of resignation is read in Parliament
- Rajapaksa says he did everything he could to avoid the crisis
COLOMBO, July 16 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s ousted president, who fled abroad this week to flee a popular uprising against his government, has said he has taken “every possible step” to prevent it. the economic crisis that has engulfed the island nation.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation was accepted by parliament on Friday. He flew to the Maldives and then to Singapore after hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets of Colombo a week ago and occupied their official residence and offices.
Sri Lanka’s parliament met on Saturday to begin the process of electing a new president and a fuel shipment arrived to alleviate some of the crisis-stricken nation.
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Dhammika Dasanayake, the secretary general of the Sri Lankan parliament, formally read Rajapaksa’s resignation letter, the contents of which had not been made public previously.
In the letter, Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka’s financial crisis was rooted in years of economic mismanagement prior to its presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic that drastically reduced tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka and remittances from Sri Lanka. foreign workers.
“My personal belief is that I took all possible steps to address this crisis, including the invitation of parliamentarians to form a government of all parties or unity,” the letter said.
Parliament will meet next Tuesday to accept the candidacies for president. A vote will be held on Wednesday to decide the country’s leader.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, an ally of Rajapaksa who is the only representative of his party in parliament, has been sworn in as acting president until then.
Wickremesinghe is one of the main aspirants to take on the role full time, but the protesters also want him to leave, which makes it more uncomfortable if elected.
The candidate for the presidency of the opposition is Sajith Premadasa. The potential dark horse is the main legislator of the ruling Dullas Alahapperuma party. Read more
Security personnel stand guard outside the parliament building amid the country’s economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 16, 2022. REUTERS / Adnan Abidi
Read more
URGENT RELATIONSHIP PROGRAM
Wickremesinghe said on Saturday that it would implement an urgent relief program to provide fuel, gas and essential food to Sri Lankan people who are struggling with the economic situation. He also promised to engage in dialogue with protesters to reduce government corruption.
Sri Lanka’s economy is likely to shrink by more than 6% this year as political instability and social unrest affect discussions on financial relief with the IMF, the country’s central bank governor told The Wall Street Journal. NL1N2YX0B6
More than 100 police and security personnel with assault rifles were deployed on Saturday on the access road to parliament, with barricades and a water cannon to prevent riots. Columns of security forces patrolled another access road to parliament, although there were no signs of any protesters.
Street protests over Sri Lanka’s economic crisis boiled over for months before boiling on July 9, and protesters blamed the Rajapaksa family and their allies for rampant inflation, commodity shortages and corruption.
The Rajapaksa family had dominated politics in Sri Lanka for years and Basil Rajapaska, brother of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resigned as finance minister in April when street protests escalated and he left his seat in parliament in June.
Day-long fuel queues have become the norm in the island nation of 22 million, while foreign exchange reserves have been reduced to almost zero and general inflation reached 54.6% in the month past.
Sri Lanka on Saturday received the first of three fuel shipments, Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said. These are the first shipments to arrive in the country in about three weeks.
A second shipment of diesel will also arrive on Saturday, with a shipment of gasoline by Tuesday.
“Payments have been completed by 3,” the minister said in a tweet.
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Report by Uditha Jayasinghe and Devjyot Ghoshal in Colombo, written by Alasdair Pal, edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Mark Potter and Timothy Heritage
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