Sri Lankan PM sworn in as interim president after letter of resignation accepted
The move comes after the Sri Lankan parliament officially accepted a letter of resignation from its former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa following mass protests over the economic crisis in the country. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as the country’s interim president until parliament chooses Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s successor. The speaker of the country’s parliament accepted Rajapaksa’s letter of resignation which was sent from Singapore on Thursday night.
It follows months of protests sparked by anger over an economic crisis in the country. President Mahinda a new president will be appointed “quickly and the process will be completed within seven days. Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka interim president on Wednesday as protesters stormed the president’s house and the prime minister’s official residence. He had initially fled to the Maldives on a military plane with his wife and two security guards, but later traveled to Singapore.
The new election as president will serve out the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in 2024. That person could potentially appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by parliament. The agenda for the weekend meeting will be decided on Friday and the vote for the next president in parliament was scheduled for July 20. Street protests against Sri Lanka’s economic crisis have been simmering for months and came to a head last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people occupied government buildings in Colombo, interim president blaming the Rajapaksa family and their allies for runaway inflation. , the scarcity of basic goods and corruption. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Mr Rajapaksa acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to the meltdown. Sri Lanka had started preliminary talks with the International Monetary Fund.
