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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s political parties met Sunday morning, facing intense pressure to quickly form an interim government after the country’s president and prime minister agreed to step down following fierce anti-government protests.
No new protests were reported in Colombo, but people thronged the president’s home, seized by protesters the previous day, picnicking in the gardens and swimming in the pool.
Nuwan Bopege, a volunteer associated with the protest movement, told The Post that protesters will occupy the homes of the two leaders until they formally resign.
Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of Colombo this weekend to demand the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the disastrous economic policies that have led the country to collapse.
On Saturday, angry mobs stormed the president’s residence and office and celebrated their victory by diving into the pool and lying on his bed. During the night, Rajapaksa had communicated his decision to resign on July 13 to the Speaker of Parliament. He moved out of his home the day before the protests and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also offered to resign to quell the growing unrest, but his offer did little to appease angry protesters who set fire to his home.
The announcements of the resignation offers marked a major victory for the protesters, but threw the island nation into political turmoil over what happens next.
Sri Lanka’s president will resign next week, parliament speaker says after protesters storm residence
“It was a failed president and a failed government,” said Faiszer Mustafa, a member of an opposition party that previously allied with Rajapaksa.
He said the long-suffering people of the country had taken control. “That was the power of the people on the show,” he said.
“This is a historic moment,” said Harini Amarasuriya, an opposition member of parliament, “when a real civil struggle ended the rule of an unpopular and unreliable government.”
At a general party meeting on Saturday evening, MPs decided to form an interim government until elections are held. Discussions are underway to appoint a prime minister ahead of the president’s resignation on Wednesday.
“We can now move to a more acceptable long-term trajectory for the country and for the international community,” said Eran Wickremeratne, leader of the main opposition party.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a tweet that President Rajapaksa has lost the confidence of the people of Sri Lanka. “All countries must now work together with the international community for a new government that respects democratic and economic aspirations and protects the human rights that the people of Sri Lanka deserve,” the tweet said.
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The European Union, in a statement, urged political parties to “focus on a peaceful, democratic and orderly transition” to return to normalcy.
Even as the opposition tries to build consensus on next steps, the situation remains volatile as people’s patience has run out and no quick fixes are available.
In May, similar large-scale protests led to the resignation of Rajapaksa’s older brother Mahinda as prime minister and other family members. But the president resisted, appointing a former prime minister to head a new government.
Anger over continued economic hardship has spilled over again, this time with greater force. Recent weeks have been marked by severe fuel shortages, prolonged power outages and a sharp rise in food prices. The emergency has forced authorities to close schools and offices and ask government workers to grow food in backyards.
Signs of acute distress are evident everywhere – in kilometer-long queues at petrol stations, where it can take up to three days to get to the front, and in desperate attempts by asylum seekers to reach Australia by sea.
Far from Ukraine, Sri Lanka is the epicenter of a global crisis
Experts say Sri Lanka is experiencing stagflation – a period marked by slow growth and high unemployment accompanied by rising prices. Current negative growth could reach minus 4-6 percent later this year, some forecasts suggest, worse than the Covid hit to the economy in 2020. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent global fuel and food prices soaring , worsened the country’s problems.
Sri Lanka is in bailout talks with international creditors, but ongoing political instability threatens to jeopardize that process.
Manjuka Fernandopoule, a lawyer specializing in debt restructuring, said creditors would like to deal with a government that is “credible and legitimate” and can “deliver on promised reform”.
Local media reported that the International Monetary Fund said it hoped for a decision soon so that talks could resume on a bailout package. Ganeshan Vignarajah, an economist at ODI, a UK-based think tank on global affairs that is involved in IMF discussions, described the economic situation as a “tremendous challenge”.
The first step forward for Sri Lanka is the IMF program, Wignarajah said, which will include “higher taxes, raising interest rates to stabilize inflation and reducing public subsidies such as electricity and energy.”
“The second step is economic reforms [such as] reducing barriers to foreign investors,” he said. “My biggest fear is that this could be a lost decade and any gains made in poverty reduction could be reversed.”
Aid groups say nearly a quarter of the country’s 22 million people need food aid. Many resort to eating less or skipping meals altogether. Countries like India and Australia sent humanitarian aid such as food and medicine.
Now with the impending ouster of the president, many Sri Lankans are hoping that things will turn around.
Namal Ratnayake, 40, was part of the protesting crowd that marched to the president’s office. The past few months have been devastating for the wedding photographer, with income disappearing and no fuel to work.
“We had to drive out these corrupt people who brought us to our knees,” Ratnayake said. “My request is that we have honest and educated people appointed by this Parliament to get us out of this immediate mess.”
At the presidential residence, the celebrations of the jubilant crowd continued.
Visual images from local media showed a stream of visitors passing through an imposing staircase at the president’s home. Announcements were made not to steal or damage property. Some picked up trash and cleaned up debris.
In a large conference room, people began a discussion with the IMF as a young man played the Rajapaksa campaign song on the president’s piano to thunderous cheers.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s campaign song “Hero who works” “வாை கர்கை அப்பு விருவை” played by protesters at the President’s office pic.twitter.com/w9KlF6feov
— NewsWire 🇱🇰 (@NewsWireLK) July 10, 2022
Masih reported from New Delhi.
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