Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday resigned from the office of President and appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as Acting President.
These decisions were announced in the same statement that Gotabaya Rajapaksa from his safe haven overseas on Wednesday.
The announcement entitled Government Notice said: “ It is hereby notified that I, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, being of the opinion that I am unable to exercise. perform and discharge the powers, duties and functions of the Office of the President, and by reason of my absence from Sri Lanka, do hereby appoint Hon Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, under Art 37 (1) of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, with effect from July 13, 2022,to exercise, perform and discharge the powers,duties and functions of the Office of President during such period of my absence from Sri Lanka.”
Meanwhile the Speaker of parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced that Gotabaya Rajapaksa had appointed Wickremesinghe as the Acting President and that Rajapaksa had informed him that he would submit his resignation “within today” (Wednesday).
Simultaneously, agitators defied the curfew and State of Emergency imposed by the Prime Minister in the morning attacked State owned TV station Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and the Independent Television Network (ITN) and forced them to shut transmission of programs.
Latest reports say that the agitators have entered the office of the Prime Minister on Flower Road.
The leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has urged both the President and the Prime Minister to resign immediately.
