The Sri Lankan Parliament will elect a new president on July 20

First modification: 07/15/2022 – 10:50

With information from our special envoys in Sri Lanka, Sebastien Farcis Y Eat Bastin.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as interim president on Friday, after Parliament accepted the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and announced the election of his successor on July 20. The now former president fled to Singapore and notified the head of the legislature by mail of his resignation.

After having fled to Singapore, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sent an email to the Sri Lankan Parliament on Thursday to announce his resignation.

“Gotabaya has legally resigned,” Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana told the press this Friday, July 15, after receiving a letter and an email from the former president.

The deputies will elect next Wednesday, July 20, the figure that will succeed Rajapaksa until the official end of his term in November 2024. Nominations will be received until Tuesday for a scheduled vote the following day.

relief and happiness

In the capital Colombo, hundreds of people defied the curfew on Thursday night to celebrate the resignation in front of the presidential building, a meeting point for the protest movement for three months.

“This is a monumental and historic victory for all Sri Lankans. Gotabaya and (his brother) Mahinda Rajapaksa did not want to resign. It was us Sri Lankans who expelled them by exercising our right to peaceful protest.” And we will continue to create a better Sri Lanka,” a protester told RFI.

For the first time in a long time there was a sense of calm in the crowd. But the fight is not over, warned one of the participants. “The main culprit was Gotabaya Rajapaksa, so it’s a relief that he is resigning. But Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe must also go,” he insisted.

Negotiations are taking place between different political factions to form a new unity government.