Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigns

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa emailed a letter of resignation to the speaker of the country’s parliament late Thursday, according to a source acquainted with the situation, reported Reuters.

The source noted that it was unclear whether the letter, which was written just after Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore, would be accepted in electronic form.

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Gotabaya, who is now in Singapore after absconding due to violent agitations in Colombo, sent his resignation to Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.

Gotabaya had promised to retire on Wednesday in order to allow for the creation of an all-party cabinet. He fled to the Maldives, however, and nominated Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as Acting President, worsening the political turmoil and sparking new protests on the island nation.

He arrived in Singapore on a Saudi Airlines flight, SV 788, on Thursday. Rajapaksa has been “allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit,” according to a spokeswoman for the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has not sought or been granted refuge, according to the spokeswoman, who added that Singapore does not normally accept asylum requests.

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Rajapaksa, who is immune from prosecution while president, fled the country without resigning to avoid arrest by the new government.

Speaker Abeywardena told Rajapaksa on Thursday that he needed to submit his resignation letter as soon as feasible or else he would consider alternative options to remove him from office.

The Daily Mirror reported that Gotabaya’s brothers, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and ex-Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, gave an undertaking to the Supreme Court on Thursday through their lawyers that they will not leave the country until the Fundamental Rights petition filed against them is heard on Friday.

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On Friday, a five-judge bench of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court will hear the petition against two members of the once-powerful Rajapaksa family.

On May 9, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the patriarch of the Rajapaksa clan, resigned as prime minister, hours after his loyalists attacked anti-government demonstrators outside President Rajapaksa’s office.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is experiencing unparalleled economic crisis, the worst in seven decades, with millions unable to purchase food, medication, fuel, and other necessities.