Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE: PM Ranil Wickremesinghe sworn in as interim president; Parliament to elect new Prez on July 20

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: Ranil Wickremesinghe sworn in as Sri Lanka’s Interim President

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has sworn in as Sri Lanka’s Interim President today. He will act as the country’s president until a new president is elected, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana had earlier said.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: Parliament to elect new President on July 20, says report

The Sri Lankan parliament will elect a new president on July 20, reported news agency AFP citing an official familiar with the development. This comes hours after Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena officially announced that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned. The announcement came two days after the embattled leader fled the country in the face of massive protests against his government for mishandling the economy that bankrupted the country. The 73-year-old leader emailed his resignation letter to the Speaker yesterday soon after he reached Singapore from the Maldives.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: Central Bank’s Governor warns nation may shutdown without stable government

Amid the ongoing massive economic and political unrest, the governor of Sri Lanka’s central bank, Nandalal Weerasinghe, has warned that the country may shut down if no stable government is formed soon, local media reported. There is a “lot of uncertainty” over whether enough foreign exchange can be found to pay for essential petroleum, reported BBC citing Weerasinghe. Progress on getting an international bailout package depended on having a stable administration, he said.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: Parliament to meet tomorrow, new President to be elected within seven days, says Speaker

Sri Lanka’s Parliament will meet tomorrow after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa officially resigned and the new President will be elected within seven days in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has announced. The Speaker said in terms of the Constitution Prime Minister Ranil 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 report added.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: PM Ranil Wickremesinghe to be acting President, says Speaker

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will act as the President of Sri Lanka until a new President is elected, says Speaker. “Under section 38.1 (b) of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, I have received the resignation letter of His Excellency the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Accordingly, effective from 14 July 2022 , from this point forth the President has legally resigned from his legal duties and responsibilities. Under these circumstances, the constitutional procedure of appointing a new President will now be activated. Until this constitutional procedure is over, according to the constitution the Prime Minister will function in the capacity of the President overseeing functions, duties, and powers of the office of the President,” Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana said in a press statement. He urged the public to allow a peaceful environment for all MPs to take part in the process which should finish within seven days. Under Sri Lanka’s constitution, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe — whose departure is also being demanded by protesters — will automatically become acting president until parliament can elect an MP to succeed Rajapaksa for the rest of his term.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation accepted, says Speaker

Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker has said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation had been accepted after the leader fled the country earlier this week, reported news agency AFP. “Gotabaya has legally resigned” with effect from Thursday, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana told reporters, after Rajapaksa notified the speaker from Singapore he was stepping down.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: Citizens await formal resignation after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees

People of Sri Lanka are waiting for a formal announcement confirming their president had resigned after he fled to Singapore to escape anti-government protests triggered by his country’s worst economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his resignation yesterday 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. The parliamentary speaker’s office said Rajapaksa had emailed his resignation and it would be examined before a formal announcement, which is expected today, is made.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: A look at frontrunners in race to become nation’s next president

As the incumbent Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country this week, submitted his resignation, a six-time prime minister, the leader of the main opposition party and a journalist-turned-politician from the ruling party are vying to become Sri Lanka’s next president. The winning candidate must secure a simple majority within parliament, but also gain the confidence of hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans who have participated in the protest movement – known as the “Aragalaya”, or “struggle” in Sinhala – that led to Rajapaksa’s ouster.

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Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: Defence Ministry orders to strictly implement law and order, bring normalcy in nation

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defense has said that instructions have been given to the armed forces and the Police to strictly implement the law and order to prevent illegal activities and establish normalcy in the country, reported ColomboPage. According to the report, the Secretary of Defense has strongly emphasized that attacking the Police/security force personnel and inciting the youth to do such illegal activities as well as damaging public property and harassing the public is a threat to the normal life of the people. Therefore, strict orders have been given to prevent such actions and establish normalcy in the country.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: China silent on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing island nation

Watching silently the political crisis in Sri Lanka where it has billions of dollars of investments, China has kept mum over the fall of the Rajapaksa brothers who promoted its expansive infrastructure projects in the island nation facing an unprecedented economic turmoil. Asked for China’s comment on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country amid unprecedented public protests demanding his resignation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin reiterated Beijing’s call for all parties in Sri Lanka to work together to revitalise the economy. “As a friend, neighbour and cooperation partner, China sincerely hopes that all sectors in Sri Lanka could bear in mind the fundamental interests of their country and people and work together in solidarity to overcome the current difficulties and strive to restore stability, revitalise the economy and improve people’s livelihoods at an early date,” Wang said.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: Talks with island nation ‘interrupted’ by unrest, says IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) hopes unrest in Sri Lanka will be resolved soon so that aid talks that were interrupted can resume, a fund spokesman said yesterday. Formal discussions on a new loan program for the cash-strapped island nation began last month but were thrown off course by the political upheaval that led to the resignation of the country’s president. “We are, of course, deeply concerned about the ongoing crisis of impact on the Sri Lankan people and particularly the poor and the vulnerable groups,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters. Following constructive early talks, “clearly the political and the social emergency situation… has interrupted those discussions,” he said.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: Sri Lankans in Singapore criticise President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

“We are here to see a criminal” and a “fugitive who devastated our economy,” some two dozen Sri Lankans living in Singapore said as they showed up at the Changi International Airport yesterday after hearing that President Gotabya Rajapaksa who fled the country to the Maldives will land here. A Saudi Airlines flight carrying Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore from the Maldives in the evening and soon Singapore’s Foreign Ministry confirmed his presence in the country on a “private visit” and there was no request for asylum from him. Rajapaksa has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum. Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum, the foreign ministry spokesperson added.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: Protestors celebrate President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation

Exhausted and drained after nearly 100 days of protests, a group of protestors gathered to celebrate the resignation of Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the seaside headquarters of their campaign to oust him. For more than three months, the seafront boulevard has been home to a cluster of tents used as a staging post for protesters demanding the despised leader step down for his role in driving Sri Lanka’s battered economy to ruin. “I certainly feel, I think the crowd here definitely does feel, quite happy about it,” activist Vraie Balthaazar told news agency AFP. “But at the same time, I think there’s also until we see the letter, there’s always a sense of apprehension,” Balthaazar added.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: India will continue to stand with people of Sri Lanka, says MEA

Amid the political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka, India has hoped for an early solution to the crisis related to the government and its leadership through democratic means and the constitutional framework. Asserting that ensuring peace and stability of all countries in the region was an important aspect of its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, at his weekly media briefing, said India continued to stand with the Lankan people and it remained engaged with all relevant stakeholders in that country. “We will continue to stand with the people of Sri Lanka as they seek to realise their aspirations for prosperity and progress through democratic means and values as well as established institutions and constitutional framework,” Bagchi said.

Sri Lanka Crisis LIVE Updates: President Gotabaya Rajapksa submits resignation from Singapore

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his resignation yesterday shortly after reaching Singapore, the parliamentary speaker’s office said. The president resigned by email, the speaker’s spokesman said hours after he landed in the city-state, after protesters overran his palace on the weekend. He fled to the Maldives on Wednesday, and left there for Singapore a day later. “The authenticity and the legality of the e-mail will have to be checked out” before being formally accepted, the speaker’s spokesman Indunil Yapa told news agency AFP, adding a formal announcement was expected on Friday.