Lagatar24 Desk
Colombo, July 15: The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday was sworn in as Acting-President of the island nation.
The sworn-in ceremony took place a short while ago by Sri Lankan Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya.
#WATCH | Ranil Wickremesinghe sworn in as Acting-President a short while ago by Sri Lankan Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya#SriLanka pic.twitter.com/odjNmfd4cf
— ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2022
Earlier today, the crisis-hit nation’s house speaker declared that the president’s resignation had been accepted after he left the country earlier this week and informed him from Singapore that he was doing so.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, formerly nicknamed as ‘The Terminator’ for his merciless suppression of Tamil separatists, has officially announced his resignation, becoming the first head of state of Sri Lanka to do so since the country switched to an executive president in 1978.
He flew to Singapore from the Maldives, where he had initially fled when protesters overran his palace at the weekend, and submitted his resignation through email.
“Gotabaya has legally resigned with effect from Thursday. I have accepted the resignation,” speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana told reporters.