Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is resigning amid mass protests. The Sri Lankan parliament will elect a new president on July 20.
Both the president and prime minister have offered to quit amid massive economic meltdowns. Tens of thousands of protesters stormed the president’s official residence, as well as the official residence of the prime minister.
Sri Lanka is deep in a financial crisis. The crowds said they would not leave until both men resigned. The parliament speaker said that the president would resign on July 13.
Rajapaksa has not yet spoken publicly since his residence was stormed over the weekend on Saturday.
The president has been blamed by the country for its economic mismanagement, which has caused dire food shortages, as well as fuel shortages and medicine shortages for months. His resignation was first announced over the weekend, but many within the country were skeptical that he would actually step down.
Today Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said it had been informed that the president would step down this week. But under the country’s constitution, the resignation can only formally be accepted when he resigns by letter to the speaker. This is yet to happen.
The Prime Minister also said earlier he would be stepping down from his position. His house was set on fire over the weekend by protests.
Sri Lanka’s leaders have been dominated by one family of brothers for years. Malinda Rajapaksa became a hero among the majority in 2009 when his government defeated separatist rebels after years of a bloody civil war. His brother Gotabaya was the defense secretary at the time and is the current president, who is standing down.
Gotabaya’s brothers and nephew quit earlier as ministers when the country began running out of fuel, food, and other essentials.
The current crisis has been the worst one since independence from Britain in 1948. The parliament will reconvene at the end of the week on Friday to vote to elect a new president five days later.
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