Gotabaya Rajapaksa, still president of Sri Lanka, will have to leave power this Wednesday, July 13. Lawmakers agreed to choose a new president, but there is no agreement on the prime minister. Both will have to get the country out of bankruptcy and the institutional crisis in which it is plunged. The protesters, who stormed the presidential house on Saturday, now continue to visit it as if it were a tourist attraction.
Forced by months of demonstrations in the streets of Colombo, the executive and judicial capital of Sri Lanka, with the country mired in the worst economic crisis since its independence from the British empire in 1948 and with a long list of unfulfilled promises, Gotabaya Rajapaksa must leave power this Wednesday.
The Sri Lankan Parliament will elect the new president on July 20 to lead the country on an interim basis.
Meanwhile, protesters, suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine, stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s home, his coastal office and the official residence of his prime minister on Saturday, setting fire to his private home on the most dramatic day. of a crisis that has been worsening for three months.
The images, which have gone around the world, of thousands of protesters storming government facilities, taking a dip in the pool, occupying bedrooms, gardens and the private gym of the president’s official residence, will remain in memory as the fact which ended the legacy of Rajapaksa.
Even this Tuesday, July 12, thousands continue to protest from inside the headquarters of the Presidential Secretariat, the official residence of the president and the residence of the prime minister, converted by the protesters into public visitation sites.
After his flight from the official residence last Saturday, Rajapaksa’s resignation, who has not been publicly seen or heard since, was first made known through the Speaker of Parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, who has assured that Rajapaksa is in the country and that he will resign this Wednesday, as announced.
These events led not only Rajapaksa to announce his resignation on Wednesday July 13, but also Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who said he would leave as soon as the opposition parties agreed on a unity government.
But protest leaders have said they will not leave government buildings until their top leaders have resigned.
The new president will serve the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in 2024, and could appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by parliament.
Between Rajapaksa’s expected resignation on Wednesday and the vote, the prime minister will serve as president, a deal that is sure to further anger protesters who want Wickremesinghe out immediately.
“Go home Gota!”: the battle cry of the protesters
“Go Home Drop!” (“Go home Gota!”) was the battle cry on Saturday, waving the national flag, of thousands of citizens overwhelmed by the rising cost of living and harsh rationing measures. The protesters managed to drive the Rajapaksa clan members out of the government bit by bit.
At least four members of the family, including his brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president and former prime minister under him, had to resign from their posts in recent months due to public pressure.
Meanwhile, this Tuesday the Sri Lankan airport authorities prevented Basil Rajapaksa, former minister and younger brother of the president, from leaving the country, without knowing the destination of the flight.
The president of the Association of Immigration and Emigration Officers of Sri Lanka, K. Kanugala, told EFE that “we made this decision because they informed us of Basil Rajapaksa’s plans to leave the country. We didn’t want our officers to experience the pressures and strains of this.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday received a petition for an interim order to prevent, in addition to Basil Rajapaksa, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal from leaving the country.
The “visits” to the presidential palace continue
Since Rajapaksa announced he was resigning, many of those who arrived at the palace in a rage on Saturday are now jubilant, strolling through the sprawling residence like tourists. Inside and outside the complex, dozens of unarmed police have patrolled the area, but have not stopped the deluge of crowds.
“The people will decide who will be their prime minister and who will be sent to Parliament in the future (…) the elected deputies to Parliament cannot decide, because they did not give solutions to the current problems of the country, they did not give solutions to the problems of the people That is the main reason why people came to the roads to fight for change,” said Sherly Wijesuriya, a protester at the palace.
Some of the protesters vandalized part of the property on Saturday. The director general of the Department of Archeology of Sri Lanka, Anura Manathuga, was on Tuesday morning, July 12, inspecting the damage. “As an archaeologist, we can’t replace things that have been damaged,” he said.
Sri Lanka, a bankrupt country
For months, protesters have camped outside Rajapaksa’s office, demanding his resignation for mismanaging the economy. Many accuse him and his powerful family, which has ruled Sri Lanka for nearly two decades, of corruption and political blunders that have thrown the island nation into crisis.
People’s patience has worn thin with the crisis; which has caused shortages of fuel, medicine, food and cooking gas.
Authorities have temporarily closed schools as the country relies on help from India and other nations amid a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe recently said that negotiations with the IMF were complex because Sri Lanka was now “a bankrupt state”.
The country announced in April that it would suspend the repayment of foreign loans due to a shortage of foreign currency, destroying the confidence of its creditors. Its total external debt amounts to 51 billion dollars, of which it must repay 28 billion dollars by the end of 2027.
With income falling precipitously, the country has not been able to meet the millionaire debt acquired for the development of this country of 22 million inhabitants.
“Sri Lanka’s economy, already heavily indebted, began to deteriorate with the global crisis stemming from the war in Ukraine, sending inflation and fuel prices skyrocketing as foreign exchange reserves began to fall to record lows.” , says EFE.
With AP and EFE
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