Sri Lanka crisis: Speaker to make announcement on President's resignation today

Colombo, July 14: Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has received the resignation letter of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa through the Singapore Embassy in Sri Lanka. After re-checking the data and completing all the legal proceedings, an official announcement in this regard will be announced on Friday.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena's media secretary Indunil Abeywardena said a resignation letter from President Rajapaksa has been received through the Sri Lanka High Commission in Singapore.

"The Speaker wishes to inform that an official statement on this would be made tomorrow (Friday) after the verification process and legal formalities," Abeywardena said in a brief statement.

The Speaker wants to see the original signature. The original will be brought to Colombo from Singapore in the next available flight by a diplomatic officer.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday stepped down, ending the suspense over his future in the face of massive public revolt against his government's mishandling of the economy.

A Saudi airlines flight - SV 788 - carrying Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore from the Maldives where he had fled early Wednesday without resigning as promised to avoid the possibility of arrest by the new government.

The development comes on a day when anti-government protesters announced to vacate some of the administrative buildings, including the President's House and the PM Office, they have been occupying since April 9 demanding Rajapaksa's ouster.

With Rajapaksa's resignation Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be the President.

Speaker Abeywardena earlier Thursday informed Rajapaksa that he should submit his resignation letter as soon as possible or else he will consider other optios to remove him from the office.

President Rajapaka's brothers - former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and ex-finance minister Basil Rajapaksa - on Thursday gave an undertaking to the Supreme Court through their lawyers that they will not leave the country until the Fundamental Rights petition filed against them is heard on Friday, the Daily Mirror reported.

Mahinda, the patriarch of the Rajapaksa clan, resigned from the post of prime minister on May 9, hours after his supporters attacked anti-government protesters outside President Rajapaksa's office.

The 76-year-old former strongman was barred by a Sri Lankan court from travelling abroad in May in view of investigations against them for the deadly attack on anti-government protesters in Colombo.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.