Nagpur: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahindra Rajapaksa is all set to make a special statement on Monday evening, according to the PM office.
As Sri Lankans continue to face financial stumbling blocks, many netizens are calling on the Prime Minister and President to resign. “This protest will not end until this government falls.” “We’ll be here for months and years,” “It’s not about a single family, but about the entire corrupt system,” one protester stated.
Meanwhile, a conference between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former President Maithripala Sirisena led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to weigh in on the country’s political and economic crisis ended without an assertion on Sunday, according to local media reports.
On Friday, eleven coalition partners of the Sri Lankan government and an independent group of former ruling party parliamentarians led by Anura Priyadarshana Yapa wrote to President Rajapaksa requesting the removal of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the formation of a new cabinet led by a new PM.
According to local media, the letter was signed by the President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLEP), former President Maithripala Sirisena, Member of Parliament (MP) Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Member of Parliament (MP) Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, and President’s Counsel Wijayadasa Rajapaksha on behalf of the 42 MPs who left the government and sat in parliament as an independent group.
Sri Lanka is experiencing a tumultuous period as the country faces an escalating financial crisis, with food and fuel scarcity affecting a large portion of the population. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy has been in decline, resulting in a tourism slump.