Lanka Crisis: Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his resignation a day ago.
Colombo:
Sri Lanka's parliament will elect a new President on Wednesday, an official said, as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation was accepted by the Speaker after the leader fled the country earlier this week.
Here are the 10 latest developments in this story:
- "Gotabaya has legally resigned" with effect from Thursday, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana told reporters, after Rajapaksa notified the speaker from Singapore he was stepping down. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as acting president.
- Sri Lankans had been waiting for a formal announcement confirming the president had resigned after he fled to Singapore to escape anti-government protests triggered by his country's dire economic crisis.
- Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his resignation late Thursday after arriving in Singapore from the Maldives, where he initially escaped after demonstrators overran his palace at the weekend.
- Rajapaksa's departure came after months of protests over what critics said was his mismanagement of the island nation's economy, leading to severe hardships for its 22 million people.
- He is the first president to resign since Sri Lanka adopted a presidential system of government in 1978.
- Singapore's foreign ministry said Rajapaksa had entered the country on a private visit, and had not sought or been granted asylum.
- Rajapaksa's decision on Wednesday to make his ally Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe the acting president triggered more protests, with demonstrators storming parliament and the premier's office demanding that he quit too.
- The government imposed a curfew in Colombo from noon on Thursday to early morning on Friday in a bid to prevent further unrest. Local media showed armoured vehicles with soldiers atop patrolling the city's streets.
- Protests against the economic crisis have simmered for months and came to a head last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people took over government buildings in Colombo, blaming the Rajapaksa family and allies for runaway inflation, shortages of basic goods, and corruption.
- Sri Lanka had begun preliminary discussions with the International Monetary Fund about a potential bailout loan, but these have been interrupted by the latest government chaos.
(With inputs from AFP, Reuters)
