Sri Lankan Speaker accepts Rajapaksa's resignation

Colombo, July 15: Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywarden on Friday accepted the resignation of embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

"Yes resignation has been accepted, legal process will follow...Members will be invited tomorrow (to elect a President)," ANI quoted Yapa Abeywarden as saying.

Sri Lanka's embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday sent his resignation letter through an email to Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardenaon.

Speaker's media secretary Indunil Abeywardena had said that the resignation letter from President Rajapaksa was received through the Sri Lanka High Commission in Singapore. However, the Speaker wanted to see the original signature, he added.

The original will be brought to Colombo from Singapore in the next available flight by a diplomatic officer, PTI sources had said on Thursday evening.

In an unusual move, Maldivian Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Mohamed Nasheed earlier announced that Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa had resigned. "Sri Lankan President GR has resigned. I hope Sri Lanka can now move forward. I believe the President would not have resigned if he were still in Sri Lanka, and fearful of losing his life. I commend the thoughtful actions of the Govt of Maldives. My best wishes to the people of Sri Lanka," Nasheed, the former president who had negotiated Rajapaksa's escape to the Maldives, said in a tweet.

The original will be brought to Colombo from Singapore in the next available flight by a diplomatic officer, sources said.

With Rajapaksa's resignation Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be the President, Colombo Gazette reported.

After thousands of protesters stormed his official residence, Rajapaksa had announced that he would step down on July 13. However, he fled to the Maldives without resigning from his office.

From the Maldives, he went to Singapore on Thursday.

Singapore's Foreign Ministry has said that President Rajapaksa has been allowed to enter the city-state on a private visit. The Foreign Ministry said that Rajapaksa has not asked for asylum. Rajapaksa was the first person with the army background to be elected as Sri Lanka's President in 2019.

Wickremesinghe, who is currently the Acting President, has already told the Speaker to call on party leaders to name a new Prime Minister through consensus.

He has already said he was willing to resign and make way for an all-party government to take over.

Under the Sri Lankan Constitution, if both the president and prime minister resign, the Speaker of parliament will serve as acting president for a maximum of 30 days.

The Parliament will elect a new president within 30 days from one of its members, who will hold the office for the remaining two years of the current term.