Colombo: The Sri Lankan parliament will elect the new president to succeed Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 20, speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced on Monday. The decision was taken during a crucial all-party leaders meeting held earlier in the day.
President Rajapaksa is yet to resign formally, however, he informed the speaker on Saturday that he will quit on July 13.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also said he will step down after a new government is formed.
After receiving Rajapaksa’s resignation on Wednesday, Parliament will convene on July 15 to announce the vacancy and will reconvene on July 19 to accept the nominations for the post, speaker Abeywardena said. A parliamentary ballot will be held on July 20 to elect the new president, he said. Rajapaksa agreed to bow down to the party leaders’ request to resign following the popular uprising on Saturday.
Under the Sri Lankan Constitution, if both the president and prime minister resign, the speaker will serve as acting president for a maximum of 30 days.
The parliament will elect a new president within 30 days from one of its members, who will hold the office for the remaining two years of the current term of Gotabaya.
President Rajapaksa had appointed Wickremesinghe as PM in May after his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to resign amidst growing pressure on the government over the mismanagement of the economy.
The cash-starved island nation witnessed a tumultuous day on Saturday when protesters broke into Rajapaksa’s official residence in Colombo. About 100,000 protesters amassed outside the president’s official residence, demanding Rajapaksa’s resignation.
Protesters did not spare PM Wickremesinghe despite his offer to resign and set on fire his private residence. Sri Lanka is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil,leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.
India says it stands with people
As chaos reigns in Sri Lanka, India sought to maintain a distance from the Lankan political establishment with the Centre saying that it stands with the people of the island nation as they seek to realise their aspirations for prosperity and progress through democratic means and values, established institutions and constitutional framework.
Foreign minister S Jaishankar said the Indian government had always been supportive of Sri Lanka and was “trying to help” the neighbour through its economic crisis. “They are working through their problems, so we have to wait and see what they do. It is a very serious crisis, and it has been developing over the years. Answers to Sri Lanka are in Sri Lanka,” he said.
