Former PM Mahinda Rajapaksa is the now-ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s brother.
Colombo:
On a day that Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation as President of Sri Lanka was formally announced, the Supreme Court today barred his two brothers — former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa — from leaving the country. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has already left the country, first for the Maldives and onwards to Singapore.
Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as PM only two months ago, after his supporters attacked some people protesting outside his brother, the then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office. The protests became more intense after that, and finally Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to leave the country last week. The departure came after months of protests over mismanagement of the island nation’s economy, leading to severe hardships for its 2.2 crore people.
“Gotabaya has legally resigned” with effect from yesterday, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana told reporters today. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as acting president.
Parliament will elect a new President on Wednesday, July 20, an official said.
Protesters also today handed back the Presidential Palace, which they’d overrun last Saturday, to the government. A forensic team immediately came in and started collecting fingerprints, besides assessing the degree of the damage.
ncG1vNJzZmhqZGy7psPSmqmorZ6Zwamx1qippZxemLyue82erqxnlqS%2FrrHRZqqroV2hrq%2B3wGanpmWdlrWqusOaZKuZmpa9orfSmmSbmaKnsqV5wbJknKelp8FustGopGaklZbDqrrGZpqorZ6pv7p7