Several Sri Lankan parliamentary deputies have submitted an address to sitting head of state Gotabaya Rajapaksa urging him to resign, the Adaderana news portal reported on Saturday.
Earlier, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called an urgent meeting of party leaders amid mass riots erupting again in the country on Saturday. He also asked the parliament speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to call an urgent meeting of legislators.
The leaders of Sri Lankan political parties that participated in a meeting headed by the parliament speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, decided that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa should resign, the Newswire portal reported Saturday.
The participants of the meeting urged the head of the state to leave his post, according to the report.
Earlier, Rajapaksa informed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe he would respect any decision taken at the meeting of representatives of the country’s political parties.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Colombo on Saturday, demanding Rajapaksa’s resignation. They managed to break into his residence, though the head of the state had left it by that time. Over 30 people were wounded during the protests, including several policemen.
Since early April, Sri Lanka has been hit by protests against the deteriorating living conditions, the lack of fuel, food and essentials. Sri Lanka is experiencing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948. It resulted from a contraction of foreign tourism due to the pandemic, which led to the shortage of foreign currency reserves in the country. In this environment the authorities were forced to cut imports and introduce tight resource saving. The country’s external debt, which totals $51 bln, hinders Sri Lanka from making external borrowings and struggling against the economic crisis.
