Sri Lankan Parliament will elect a new President next week: Speaker

• Image Credit: Internet

• Jul 11, 2022 | Dhupali Das

The decision was made during a major all-party leaders meeting earlier in the day...

Digital Desk: The Sri Lankan Parliament will elect a new president to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 20, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena stated on Monday.

The decision was made during a major all-party leaders meeting earlier in the day.

Although President Rajapaksa has not yet submitted a formal resignation, he informed the Speaker on Saturday that he would step down on July 13. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, also declared that he would resign after the formation of a new government 

After accepting Rajapaksa's resignation on Wednesday, Speaker Abeywardena announced that Parliament would meet on July 15 to announce the vacancy and would meet again on July 19 to take applications.

He added that a parliamentary ballot would elect the new president on July 20.

Following Saturday's mass protest, Rajapaksa agreed to quit in response to party leaders' request.

As per the Sri Lankan Constitution, the Speaker will operate as president for a maximum of 30 days if both the president and prime minister resign.

Within 30 days, the Parliament will choose a new president from among its members, who would serve as head of state for the final two years of President Gotabaya's tenure.

After his older brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, was forced to quit due to mounting pressure on the government over the mismanagement of the economy, President Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May.

Protesters broke into Rajapaksa's official mansion in Colombo on Saturday, causing a chaotic day in the cash-strapped island nation. In front of the president's official home, a crowd of about 100,000 protesters gathered to call for Rajapaksa's resignation.

Protesters were seen entering the President's House, Rajapaksa's office and house in the commercial capital of Colombo after bursting through police security cordons.

Despite his promise to step down, protesters burned down Prime Minister Wickremesinghe's private home in an affluent area in the capital.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis, the worst in seven decades, with millions unable to purchase food, medicine, fuel, and other necessities.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets recently to demand that the country's leaders resign amid allegations of economic mismanagement.

With a severe foreign currency crisis that has resulted in foreign debt default, the country stated in April that it is postponing roughly USD 7 billion in foreign debt repayment due this year, out of approximately USD 25 billion due until 2026. 51 billion USD is owed to foreign debt by Sri Lanka.