As Sri Lanka plunges into chaos, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Monday that the country requires an “all-party government”, and “we all have to work on that”. Even as protests in Sri Lanka continue amid massive financial crisis, the prime minister’s assertion signifies an intent for a political consensus. However, the President Gotabaya Rajpaksa remained missing since Saturday.
Minister of Urban Development and Housing, Prasanna Ranatunga on Monday announced that the new President of Sri Lanka will be elected on July 20.
According to local media reports quoting Ranatunga, ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPFA) party leaders have decided to elect a new President on July 20, after President Rajapaksa resigns on 13 July. Parliament will be convened two days later on 15 July to start the process. Nominations for the President’s office will be accepted on 19 July and the new President will be elected a day later.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has also announced his intention to resign on 13 July amid growing popular protest which began in April after the Island Nation plunged into an unprecedented economic crisis. With skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and scarcity of fuel, the government had to shut down schools, government offices and even hospitals. The popular protests raging across the country culminated into storming of the Presidential Palace on Sunday, after protestors in thousands began to gather in Colombo since Thursday 7 July, defying curfew.
Protestors were seen unwinding themselves in the Presidential Palace, splashing in the pool and enjoying food, even as they discovered about Rs. 18 million left behind by President Rajpaksa who was said to have fled the country sometime before the palace was taken over by protesting citizens. Rajpaksa had shifted to the palatial official residence after protestors tried to storm his private residence some months back. A day earlier on Saturday, protestors had stormed Wickremesinghe’s residence and torched it.
Expressing solidarity with protesting public, former Sri Lankan cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya called the 9th of July, the day when the demonstration started, a “public day.”
As the turmoil continued on Sunday, Lankan opposition parties, including Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the breakaway faction of the ruling SLPFA, agreed in principle to form an all-party interim government to help the country tide over the crisis. These parties are supporting the public protests.
It will be interesting to see how the major opposition parties, including SJB, react to the ruling SLPFA’s attempt to hoist another President on the nation against the popular mood. In the 225-member Parliament of Sri Lanka, the running SLPFA has 146 members, while the main opposition SJB has 54 members. Tamil National Alliance and National People’s Power have, respectively, 16 and 6 members in the Parliament.
Earlier in the day, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena clarified that Gotabaya Rajapaksa was still in the country, soon after reports emerged that the President had made good his escape in the face of popular protests against his regime.