SRI LANKAN PRIME MINISTER OFFERS TO RESIGN AMID PROTESTS

Sat 09 July 2022:

After protestors seized the president’s official mansion and office in the capital, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made an offer to resign.

According to a statement from the prime minister’s office, he informed the speaker of the house that he was prepared to resign so that an all-party administration could take office.

The 73-year-old leader, who in May became prime minister for the sixth time, said that he took up the job under extraordinary circumstances.

Members of civil society and organisers of the protest movement, known as #GoHomeGota, have accused Wickremesinghe of doing little to ease the fuel and food crisis nearly two months since he took over as prime minister.

The island nation of 22 million has been brought to a virtual standstill due to acute shortages of fuel and essential items such as food and medicines, as the government ran out of foreign reserves to import commodities earlier this year.

Sri Lanka defaulted on its external debt in April and the usable foreign reserves are so low that it has struggled to cover its needs from the international market.

Food inflation has risen to nearly 60 percent, while the crashing of the Sri Lankan rupee by more than 80 percent since March has further eroded people’s purchasing power.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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