Sri Lanka president Gotabaya Rajapaksa could resign by midday, a top source from within the ruling party told Reuters Wednesday morning, hours after confirmation he had fled to Maldives on a military aircraft. Rajapaksa, 73, had promised to resign and assured a “peaceful transition of power” following widespread protests over the country’s worst economic crisis in living memory.
Protesters have warned of a ‘decisive fight’ if president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who said he would also step down – so long as an alternate government is in place, do not do so by the afternoon.
However, ruling party members want Wickremesinghe as their presidential nominee, although no decision has been taken yet, a source told Reuters. The crisis-hit island nation – where a severe forex shortage has led to scarcity of food, fuel and other essentials – has been consumed by widespread and often violent protests since early this year, leading up to tens of thousands of angry citizens storming the president’s colonial-era residence in Colombo.
