Roving Periscope: Gotabaya resigns; Ranil sworn in as Acting President
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was on Friday sworn in as Acting President of crisis-ridden Sri Lanka after the fugitive incumbent, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, submitted his resignation from Singapore to Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the media reported.
The Speaker told party leaders that Parliament will meet on July 20 to elect a new President.
Amid nationwide turmoil, Wickremesinghe took oath as Sri Lanka’s interim President until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya who was forced to flee the country and quit after unprecedented mass protests against his government for mishandling the economy that bankrupted the island country this year.
Wickremesinghe took oath as Acting President in the presence of Chief Justice of Sri Lanka Jayantha Jayasuriya, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Speaker Abeywardena officially announced on Friday that Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned as President, two days after the embattled leader fled the country, first to the Maldives and from there to Singapore faced with massive protests at home.
Abeywardena said that nominations will be called for the office of President on July 19. They will officially inform the announcement of the vacancy in the office of President to the Parliament on Saturday.
The Speaker earlier said in terms of the Constitution, Wickremesinghe will function in the capacity of the President, overseeing functions, duties, and powers of the Office of the President until the constitutional procedure of electing the new President is over, the media reported.
On Saturday last week, when massive crowds forced him to flee President’s House, Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced he will step down on July 13. He, however, appointed Wickremesinghe as acting president and fled to the Maldives without resigning from his office. From the Maldives, he went to Singapore on Thursday.
Gotabaya, a former Lt. Col. in the Sri Lankan Army, was the first person with a military background to be elected as Sri Lanka’s President in 2019.
According to reports, the Speaker received the resignation letter from Gotabaya Rajapaksa through the Sri Lanka High Commission in Singapore on Thursday night. However, he wanted to make the official announcement after the verification process and legal formalities, his media secretary Indunil Abeywardena said.
A spokesperson for Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Rajapaksa had been “allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit”.
He has not asked for asylum and neither has the country granted him any asylum, the spokesperson said on Thursday, adding Singapore rarely grants requests for asylum.
On Wednesday, Wickremesinghe, who had also announced his resignation, asked the Speaker to nominate a Prime Minister acceptable to both the government and Opposition.
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel, and other essentials.
