Newsman: Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country early Wednesday, days after protesters stormed his home and office and the official residence of his prime minister.Rajapaksa fled the country early Wednesday, slipping away only hours before he promised to resign. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he would leave once a new government was in place. Rajapaksa dynasty ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife left aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane bound for the Maldives, the air force said in a statement. The air force said that it provided an aircraft, with the defense ministry approval, for the president and his wife to travel to the Maldives, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean known for exclusive tourist resorts. It said all immigration and customs laws were followed.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s two bodyguards also were on board with him. Other family members who had served in the government and the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s whereabouts were unclear, as the nationwide state of emergency declared.
Thousands of protesters demanding that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also step down rallied outside his office compound and some scaled the walls, as the crowd roared its support, waving Sri Lankan flags and tossing water bottles to those heading inside. As protesters feared, Rajapaksa appointed his prime minister as acting president in his absence, according to the speaker of the Parliament. Police used tear gas to try to disperse the protesters but failed, and more and more marched down the lane and towards the prime minister’s office.
Corruption and mismanagement have left the island nation laden with debt and unable to pay for imports of basic necessities. The shortages have sown despair among the country’s 22 million people. Sri Lankans are skipping meals and lining up for hours to try to buy scarce fuel. A three-month economic crisis triggered severe shortages of food and fuel in the country. And the political impasse added fuel to the economic crisis since the absence of an alternative unity government threatened to delay a hoped-for bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
The promised resignations brought no end to the crisis, and protesters have vowed to occupy the official buildings until the top leaders are gone. For days, people have flocked to the presidential palace almost as if it were a tourist attraction — swimming in the pool, marveling at the paintings and lounging on the beds piled high with pillows. At one point, they also burned the prime minister’s private home.
The protesters accuse the president and his relatives of siphoning money from government coffers for years and Rajapaksa’s administration of hastening the country’s collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajapaksa acknowledged some of his policies contributed to the meltdown.
Lawmakers agreed to elect a new president next week .While lawmakers agreed late Monday to elect a new president from their ranks on July 20, they have not yet decided who will take over as prime minister and fill the Cabinet. Lawmakers struggled to decide on the makeup of a new government to lift the bankrupt country out of economic and political collapse.
The new president will serve the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in 2024 — and could potentially appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament.
The prime minster is to serve as president until a replacement is chosen.
On Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s religious leaders urged protesters to leave the government buildings. The protesters have vowed to wait until both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe are out of office.
The country meantime is relying on aid from neighboring India and from China.
Rajapaksa agreed under pressure to resign Wednesday, Wickremesinghe has said he would only leave once a new government was in place. On Wednesday morning, Sri Lankans continued to stream into the presidential palace. A growing line of people waited to enter the residence, many of whom had traveled from outside the capital of Colombo on public transport. Protesters seized the president’s home and office and the official residence of the prime minister following months of demonstrations.
