Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country for Maldives on Wednesday, sources said. ReutersHe was about to step down amid widespread protests over his handling of a devastating economic crisis.
Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards boarded the Sri Lankan Air Force plane, an immigration official said. Reuters,
Editorial: Sri Lanka bankruptcy
A government source and close aide of Rajapaksa said he was in Male, the capital of Maldives. A government source said the President is likely to travel to another Asian country from there.
The immigration official said authorities cannot prevent the incumbent president from leaving the country under the law.
Rajapaksa was due to step down from the presidency on Wednesday to form a unity government, as thousands of protesters stormed the official residences of him and the prime minister on Saturday, demanding his removal. read more
The president has not been seen in public since Friday.
Sources close to Sri Lankan parliament speaker Mahinda Yapa Abhayawardene said they have not yet received any message from Rajapaksa. A source close to Rajapaksa said he would send a letter of resignation later on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has also offered to resign. If he does so, according to the constitution, the speaker will be made acting president until a new president is elected.
Abhaywardhana had earlier said that Parliament would be reconvened on Friday and vote to elect a new president five days later.
The Rajapaksa family, including former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has dominated the country’s politics of 22 million for years and many Sri Lankans blame them for the current problems.
The tourism-dependent economy was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and a drop in remittances from overseas Sri Lankans, while a ban on chemical fertilisers hurt agricultural production. The ban was later withdrawn.
Rajapaksa implemented populist tax cuts in 2019, slashing government finances while imports of fuel, food and medicines slashed as foreign reserves shrank.
There has been heavy rationing of petrol and long lines have formed in front of shops selling LPG. Headline inflation hit 54.6 per cent last month and the central bank has warned it could rise to 70 per cent in the coming months.
in hiding
President’s brother Mahinda Rajapakse resigned As prime minister in May after protests against the family turned violent. He hid at a military base in the east of the country for a few days before returning to Colombo.
In May, the Rajapaksa government appointed the speaker of the Maldivian parliament and a former president, Mohamed Nasheed, to help coordinate foreign aid to beleaguered Sri Lanka.
In the same month, Nasheed publicly denied allegations that he was helping Mahinda Rajapaksa build a safe haven in the Maldives.
Protests against the Sri Lankan government have intensified since May, but resumed last Saturday when hundreds of thousands of people stormed Colombo and occupied major government buildings and residences.
In pictures: rioters ransacked the residence of sri lankan president
immigration officer on tuesday stopped Former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, one of the president’s brothers, from leaving the country.
It was unclear where Basil Rajapaksa, who holds US citizenship, was trying to go. He resigned as finance minister in early April amid massive protests against fuel and food shortages and gave up his seat in parliament in June.