Lagatar24 Desk
Colombo, July 14: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was his route to Singapore on Thursday from the Maldives, where he had left the day before to avoid a large-scale protest as the nation battled with an economic crisis.
According to a source in the Lankan administration, the Sri Lankan President was anticipated to remain in Singapore for the time being.
Rajapaksa had pledged to step down on Wednesday, but Yapa Abeywardena, the speaker of Sri Lanka’s parliament, claimed he had not yet received a letter of resignation from him.
Meanwhile, the anti-government protestors that drove President Gotabaya Rajapaksa out of his official residence over the weekend made plans to leave some of the important structures they had taken control of.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to leave to the Maldives on Wednesday after protesters stormed his palace over the weekend. At the same time, protestors broke into Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office.
The prime minister, whom Rajapaksa designated as acting president while his absence, had called for the evacuation of government structures and given security personnel the command to take “whatever steps are necessary to restore order.”
Thousands of people surrounded Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office, occupied his home, and pressed up to the gates of the Lankan parliament yesterday, prompting the use of tear gas shells.