Sri Lanka: Ex-PM Ranil Wickremesinghe to become President after Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigns

Amid continued political turmoil in Sri Lanka, Republic learnt that outgoing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will take over the office of the President, on Tuesday. Sources told the channel that the incumbent President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has already signed his resignation papers dated July 13 which will be submitted to the Parliament Speaker on Wednesday for the formal declaration.

As soon as the formal declaration is made, there would be a vacancy on the post. Article 40 (c) of the Sri Lankan constitution,  reads that during the period between the occurrence of such vacancy and the assumption of office by the new President, the Prime Minister shall act in the office of the President. If the Prime Minister is unable to act, the Speaker shall act in the office of the President. The Parliament would then proceed to fill the vacancy by an election among MPs. Article 40 (b) states that such an election shall be held as soon as possible after the occurrence of the vacancy and in no case later than one month from the date of occurrence of the vacancy.

Protest-rattled Sri Lanka

If only the plunging tourism in the wake of the bombings and foreign loans on controversial development projects were not enough, the pandemic-induced lockdowns slashed the Sri Lankan government's finances further. The country soon ran out of money and could not repay its huge debts. Shortages of food, cooking gas, fuel and medicine stoked public anger at what many see as mismanagement, corruption and nepotism.

The Rajapaksa family in the sphere of politics bore the brunt of public wrath, and three Rajapaksa relatives, including the finance minister, were forced to quit their Cabinet posts and another to leave his ministerial job in April. In the next month, i.e., in May, the anger of the protesters turned to Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was pressured to resign as Prime Minister and took refuge on a heavily fortified naval base. But Gotabaya refused to go, triggering chants in the streets of “Gota Go Home!”

Instead, he saw his saviour in Ranil Wickremesinghe. But that wasn't for long, as the protest peaked in July. Massive crowds descended on the capital, Colombo, broke into Rajapaksa’s official residence and occupied his seaside office. They also stormed Wickremesinghe’s residence and set it on fire. Hours later, leaders of political parties in Parliament called for both leaders to step down, which was agreed to.