COLOMBO, Sri Lanka –
Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister agreed to resign on Saturday after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming the homes of both officials and torching one of the buildings in a fit of anger over the dire economic crisis. from the country.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will step down once a new government is in place, and hours later the speaker of parliament said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would step down on Wednesday. Pressure on both men grew as the economic crisis triggered acute shortages of essential items, leaving people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.
Police tried to foil the promised protests with a curfew, then lifted it when lawyers and opposition politicians denounced it as illegal. Thousands of protesters entered the capital, Colombo, crowding the fortified Rajapaksa residence. Video footage showed jubilant crowds splashing in the garden pool, lying on beds and using their cellphone cameras to capture the moment. Some made tea, while others issued statements from a conference room demanding that the president and prime minister leave.
It was not clear if Rajapaksa was there at the time and government spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said he had no information on the president’s movements.
Protesters later broke into the prime minister’s private residence and set it on fire, Wickremesinghe’s office said. It was not immediately clear if he was there when the raid occurred.
Earlier, police fired tear gas at protesters who gathered in the streets to march on the presidential residence, waving flags, banging drums and chanting slogans. In all, more than 30 people were injured in Saturday’s chaos.
President Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a televised statement that he informed Rajapaksa that parliamentary leaders had met and decided to ask him to step down, and the president agreed. However, Rajapaksa will remain temporarily to ensure a smooth transfer of power, Abeywardena added.
“He asked me to inform the country that he will resign on Wednesday the 13th, because there is a need to hand over power peacefully,” Abeywardena said.
“Therefore, there is no need for more unrest in the country and I urge everyone for the good of the country to keep the peace to allow a smooth transition,” the speaker continued.
Opposition lawmaker Rauff Hakeem said a consensus had been reached for the speaker of parliament to take over as temporary president and work on an interim government.
Wickremesinghe announced his own imminent resignation but said he would not step down until a new government is formed, angering protesters who demanded his immediate departure.
“Today in this country we have a fuel crisis, a food shortage, we have the head of the World Food Program coming here and we have various issues to discuss with the IMF,” Wickremesinghe said. “Therefore, if this government leaves, there should be another government.”
Wickremesinghe said he suggested the president have an all-party government but said nothing about Rajapaksa’s whereabouts. The opposition parties discussed the formation of a new government.
Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May in the hope that the career politician would use his diplomacy and connections to revive a collapsing economy. But people’s patience ran out as shortages of fuel, medicine and cooking gas increased and oil reserves dried up. Authorities have also temporarily closed schools.
The country relies on help from India and other nations as leaders try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. Wickremesinghe recently said negotiations with the IMF were complex because Sri Lanka was now a bankrupt state.
Sri Lanka announced in April that it was suspending payments on foreign loans due to a shortage of foreign exchange. Its total external debt amounts to 51,000 million dollars, of which it must pay 28,000 million dollars by the end of 2027.
Months of demonstrations have all but dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades, but protesters accuse it of mismanagement and corruption. The president’s older brother resigned as prime minister in May after violent protests prompted him to seek safety at a naval base.
With fuel costs making other forms of travel impossible for many, protesters packed buses and trains Saturday to reach the capital, while others rode bicycles and on foot. At the president’s seaside office, security personnel tried in vain to stop protesters pushing through the fences to run through the gardens and inside the colonial-era building.
At least 34 people, including two policemen, were injured in the scuffles. Two were in critical condition, while others suffered minor injuries, according to a Colombo National Hospital official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Privately owned Sirasa Television said at least six of its workers, including four reporters, were hospitalized after being beaten by police while covering the protest at the prime minister’s home.
The Sri Lanka Medical Council, the country’s main professional body, warned that hospitals were operating with minimal resources and would not be able to handle the mass casualties of the unrest.
Religious and protest leaders said that Rajapaksa has lost his mandate and it is time for him to leave.
“His claim that he was voted in by Sinhalese Buddhists is not valid now,” said Omalpe Sobitha, a prominent Buddhist leader. He urged parliament to meet immediately to select an interim president.
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung called on people to protest peacefully on Friday, calling on the military and police to “give peaceful protesters the space and security to do so.”
“Chaos and force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability Sri Lankans need at this time,” Chung tweeted.
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Associated Press writers Bharatha Mallawarachi in Colombo and Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this report.