COLOMBO: Following a violent day of protests in which protesters stormed the president’s official residence and set fire to the prime minister’s home in Colombo, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced on Saturday that he intends to step down in response to intense pressure.
An explosion of joyous fireworks broke out in the city after the announcement, which came after a dramatic uptick in months of largely peaceful anti-government protests over a dire economic crisis on the 22 million-person island in the Indian Ocean.
The president himself didn’t immediately respond.
Rajapaksa informed Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena that he would leave his position on Wednesday, the speaker said in a video statement.
According to Abeywardena, “the decision to leave office on July 13 was taken to ensure a peaceful handover of power.” As a result, he pleaded with the populace to uphold the law and keep the peace.
According to a statement released by his office on Saturday night, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also stated that he was ready to step down to make way for an all-party government.
If this would calm public ire was not yet clear.
Although the speaker earlier outlined suggestions from a meeting of political parties on Saturday that would include parliament choosing an acting president within a week, specifics of how a transition of power would take place were not yet known.
AWAY FROM THE OFFICIAL RESIDENCE
Soldiers and police struggled throughout the day to contain a mob of chanting protesters calling for Rajapaksa’s resignation and accusing him of causing the nation’s worst economic crisis in seven decades.
According to a witness, police opened fire in the air but were unable to stop the crowd from encircling the presidential residence.
Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe weren’t inside their homes when the structures were attacked.
A Facebook livestream showed hundreds of protesters cramming into rooms and hallways inside the president’s whitewashed colonial-era home. Some of the demonstrators were wearing flag-draped clothing.
While others sat on sofas and four-poster beds, some of them could be seen splashing around in the swimming pool in video footage. Images that were widely shared on social media showed some emptying out a chest of drawers.
Prior to the anticipated weekend protest, Rajapaksa had left on Friday as a safety measure, according to two sources in the defence ministry.
A large fire and smoke were seen coming from Wickremesinghe’s private residence in an affluent Colombo neighbourhood later on Saturday, according to video footage on local news channels. According to his office, the fire was started by protesters.
There were no initial reports of fire-related injuries. According to a government source, Wickremesinghe had relocated to a secure area.
During the protests, at least 39 people, including two police officers, were hospitalised with injuries.
The country is struggling under a severe foreign exchange shortage that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging it into the worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
Soaring inflation, which reached a record 54.6% in June and is expected to hit 70% in the coming months, has heaped hardship on the population.
PARTY TALKS
The decision by the president and prime minister to step aside came after Wickremesinghe held talks with several political party leaders to decide what steps to take following the unrest.
Wickremesinghe has informed the party leaders that he is ready to step down as prime minister to allow an all-party government to take office, according to a statement from his office.
In a letter to Rajapaksa, the parliamentary speaker, Abeywardena, stated that a number of decisions had been made at the meeting of party leaders, including the immediate resignation of the president and prime minister and the convening of parliament within seven days to elect an acting president.
According to the letter made public by the Speaker’s office, “Under the acting president, the current parliament may appoint a new prime minister and an interim government.”
“Thereafter, under a predetermined period of time, elections for a new parliament may be held,” it was added.
Kusal Perera, a political analyst, described the situation as “dicey.”
“The president and prime minister’s resignation will create a power vacuum that could be dangerous if a clear transition is not put in place,” Perera said. “The Speaker can name a new all-party government, but it remains to be seen whether the protesters will accept them.”
ECONOMIC DISASTER
Sri Lanka is seeking a $3 billion bailout, the restructuring of some of its foreign debt, and fund-raising from multilateral and bilateral sources to ease the dollar shortage. Political instability could jeopardise its negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the tourism-based economy and reduced remittances from foreign workers, which led to the development of the economic crisis.
Excessive government debt, rising oil prices, and a ban on the import of chemical fertilisers last year that completely destroyed agriculture have all contributed to its aggravation. In November, the ban on fertilisers was lifted.
However, many attribute Rajapaksa’s economic mismanagement as the cause of the nation’s decline.
Since the cash-strapped nation stopped receiving fuel shipments, forcing school closures and rationing of gasoline and diesel for essential services, discontent has risen.
