Sri Lanka crisis: Prez Rajapaksa resigns, to handover papers tomorrow

Colombo, July 12: Embattled Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has signed his resignation letter dated July 11 and it will be handed over to the Speaker of Parliament on Wednesday, ANI reported.

Rajapaksa has already handed over the letter to a senior government official who will submit it to the Speaker tomorrow. Till a new President is elected by Parliament, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be sworn in as the President for a temporary period after his resignation, according to the report.

As Sri Lanka battles an unprecedented economic and political crisis, Minister of Urban Development and Housing, Prasanna Ranatunga on Monday said that the new President of Sri Lanka will be elected on July 20.

The following events will take place if the President resigns on 13th July as decided at the party leaders' meeting- Parliament will be convened on July 15; nominations for the post of President will be accepted on July 19 and the new President will be elected on July 20.

Sri Lankan President, who announced his resignation on Saturday, was earlier said to have fled and was in another country. Speaker of Sri Lanka's Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Monday clarified that Gotabaya Rajapaksa is still in the country and protected by the Armed Forces.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa was reportedly stopped from fleeing the country on Monday evening. Basil, the youngest brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was trying to board a flight to Dubai. The airport immigration officials did not permit him to leave the country following protests from the passengers, Daily Mirror reported.

Sri Lanka is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, crippled by an acute shortage of foreign exchange that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports of fuel, and other essentials.