SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT SEEKS UNITY GOV’T AS PROTESTS ESCALATE

Mon 04 April 2022:

As protesters around the country demanded his resignation due to rising food, gasoline, and medication shortages, Sri Lanka’s president offered to share power with the opposition.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made his appeal to legislators on Monday as highly armed security forces attempted to calm fresh protests over what the administration has described as the worst shortages of essentials since the country’s 1948 independence from Britain.

“The president invites all political parties in parliament to accept cabinet posts and join the effort to seek solutions to the national crisis,” Rajapaksa’s office said in a statement.

It stressed that solutions to the deepening crisis should be found “within a democratic framework”, as hundreds were joining spontaneous demonstrations in cities, towns and villages.

The invitation came after a late-night meeting in which 26 cabinet ministers – all except Rajapaksa and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa – presented letters of resignation.

On Monday, Ajith Cabraal, the country’s central bank governor, joined the long list of resignations.

The move cleared the way for the country’s ruling political clan to seek to shore up its position.

The country’s stock exchange was shut down seconds after it started because shares fell by more than the 5% threshold required to trigger an automatic stop.

The South Asian island nation is experiencing historic food and fuel shortages, as well as record inflation and devastating power outages, with no signs of an end

The administration has stated that it will seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, although no negotiations have begun.

Crowds yelled in Kiribathgoda on Monday, “Go lunatic, Gota lunatic,” alluding to the president, who declared a state of emergency a day after a crowd attempted to attack his mansion.

The government imposed a full-day curfew on Sunday, preventing larger protests organized using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, which were all blocked by the government.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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