Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has submitted a letter of resignation, two government sources said on Thursday, after he fled to Singapore following mass protests over his country’s economic meltdown.
Rajapaksa emailed a letter of resignation to the speaker of the country’s parliament on Thursday. It was not immediately clear if the letter, sent shortly after Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore, would be accepted in email form, the sources added.
In the commercial capital Colombo, troops patrolled the streets to enforce a curfew.
Singapore’s foreign ministry said Rajapaksa had entered the country on a private visit and had not sought or been granted asylum.
His decision on Wednesday to make his ally, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the acting president triggered more protests, with demonstrators storming parliament and the premier’s office demanding that he quit too.
“We want Ranil to go home,” Malik Perera, a 29-year-old rickshaw driver who took part in the parliament protests, said on Thursday. “They have sold the country, we want a good person to take over, until then we won’t stop.”—AFP
