President of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agreed to resign following protests calling for his resignation.
According to the speaker of parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the president has sent July 13th as the date when he will officially step down as a president of Sri Lank after leading the country for 3 years.
Series of protests which started in March this year demanded for the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his administration accusing them of mismanaging the economy which resulted into frequent power cuts, hyper inflation which by July 7th had reached 60% and inflation of food products at 80%, high costs of living and shortage of essential products.
Protests intensified yesterday when the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that the country is officially bankrupt meaning the country had collapsed.
Protestors additionally accuse the Rajapaksa family of corruption and nepotism having 4 of the Rajpaksa family members serve in the current government’s cabinet while a total of 5 are in the Sri Lanka parliament. Mahinda Rajapaksa who is the former President (2005-2015) served as the Prime Minister to Gotabaya Rajapaksa from 2019 to May 2022, Basil Rajapaksa served as the Minister of Finance from 2021 – April 2022, while Chamal Jayantha Rajapaksa who was the Speaker of Parliament 2010-2015, served as the Minister of Minister of Internal Trade, Food Security and Consumer Welfare, Mahaweli, Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Development from 2019 to 2020.
According to the office of the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who has been a Prime Minister of Sri Lanka four times has also kowtowed to the demands of the protesters and agreed to step down on July 13th to pave way for the All Party Government following protesters that stormed into the Presidential Palace earlier today and set his private house ablaze.
Government has declared the State of Emergency as protests continue.
