Sunday July 10, 2022
COLOMBO, July 9 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya
Rajapaksa plans to step down, the country's parliamentary speaker said on Saturday,
bowing to intense pressure after a violent day of protests in which
demonstrators stormed the president's official residence and set fire to the
prime minister's home in Colombo.
The announcement, following the dramatic escalation in
months of largely peaceful anti-government protests over a dire economic crisis
on the Indian Ocean island of 22 million people, triggered an eruption of
celebratory fireworks in the city.
There was no immediate word from the president himself.
Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a video statement
that Rajapaksa had informed him that he would step down from his post on
Wednesday.
"The decision to step down on 13 July was taken to
ensure a peaceful handover of power," Abeywardena said. "I therefore
request the public to respect the law and maintain peace," he said.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also said he was willing
to resign to make way for an all-party government, his office said in a
statement on Saturday evening.
It was not yet clear if this would quell popular anger.
Details of how a transition of power would take place were
also not yet known, although the speaker earlier outlined proposals from a
meeting of political parties on Saturday that would include parliament picking
an acting president within a week.
OFFICIAL RESIDENCE
OVERRUN
Throughout the day, soldiers and police were unable to hold
back a crowd of chanting protesters demanding Rajapaksa's resignation and
blaming him for the country's worst economic crisis in seven decades.
Police fired shots in the air but were unable to stop the
crowd from surrounding the presidential residence, a witness said.
Neither Rajapaksa nor Wickremesinghe were in their
residences when the buildings were attacked.
Inside the president's whitewashed colonial-era residence, a
Facebook livestream showed hundreds of protesters, some draped in the national
flag, packing into rooms and corridors.
Video footage showed some of them splashing in the swimming
pool, while others sat on a four-poster bed and sofas. Some could be seen
emptying out a chest of drawers in images that were widely circulated on social
media.
Rajapaksa had left on Friday as a safety precaution ahead of
the planned weekend demonstration, two defence ministry sources said. Reuters
could not immediately confirm his whereabouts.
Later on Saturday, video footage on local news channels
showed a huge fire and smoke coming from Wickremesinghe's private home in an
affluent Colombo neighbourhood. His office said that protesters had started the
fire.
There were no immediate reports of injuries in the blaze.
Wickremesinghe had moved to a secure location, a government source told Reuters
early in the day.
At least 39 people, including two police officers, were
injured and hospitalised during the protests, hospital sources told Reuters.
The country is struggling under a severe foreign exchange
shortage that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine,
plunging it into the worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
Soaring inflation, which reached a record 54.6% in June and
is expected to hit 70% in the coming months, has heaped hardship on the
population.
PARTY TALKS
The decision by the president and prime minister to step
aside came after Wickremesinghe held talks with several political party leaders
to decide what steps to take following the unrest.
"Wickremesinghe has told the party leaders that he is
willing to resign as Prime Minister and make way for an all-party government to
take over," his office said in a statement.
The parliamentary speaker, Abeywardena, said in a letter to
Rajapaksa that several decisions had been made at the meeting of party leaders,
including the president and the prime minister resigning as soon as possible
and parliament being called within seven days to select an acting president.
"Under the acting president the present parliament can
appoint a new prime minister and an interim government," said the letter
released by the Speaker's office.
"Afterwards under a set time an election can be held for
the people to elect a new parliament," it added.
Political analyst Kusal Perera said the situation was
"dicey."
"If a clear transition is not put in place the
president and prime minister's resignation will create a power vacuum that
could be dangerous," Perera said. "The Speaker can appoint a new
all-party government but whether they will be accepted by the protesters
remains to be seen."
The U.S. State Department is following developments closely
and condemns any violence against peaceful protesters and journalists, a State
Department spokesperson said, adding that Washington calls for the full
investigation, arrest and prosecution of anyone involved in violent incidents
related to protests.
"We urge this government or any new,
constitutionally-selected government to work quickly to identify and implement
solutions that will achieve long-term economic stability and address the Sri
Lankan people’s discontent over the worsening economic conditions, including
power, food, and fuel shortages," the spokesperson said.
ECONOMIC CRISIS
Political instability could undermine Sri Lanka's talks with
the International Monetary Fund as it seeks a $3 billion bailout, the
restructuring of some foreign debt and fund-raising from multilateral and
bilateral sources to ease the dollar drought.
The economic crisis developed after the COVID-19 pandemic
hammered the tourism-reliant economy and slashed remittances from overseas
workers.
It has been compounded by the build-up of hefty government
debt, rising oil prices and a ban on the import of chemical fertilisers last
year that devastated agriculture. The fertiliser ban was reversed in November.
However, many blame the country's decline on economic
mismanagement by Rajapaksa.
Discontent has increased in recent weeks as the
cash-strapped country stopped receiving fuel shipments, forcing school closures
and rationing of petrol and diesel for essential services.
Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by
Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry