Sri Lanka’s president, cabinet set to resign, central bank governor to stay

Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the entire cabinet will resign to make way for a unity government, the prime minister’s office said on Monday, after tens of thousands of protesters stormed the official residences of both men.

After Saturday’s sweeping protests in the wake of a debilitating economic crisis, the speaker of parliament said Rajapaksa would resign on Wednesday. However, there has been no direct word from Rajapaksa on his plans.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said he would also step down to allow an all-party interim government to take over. Wickremesinghe’s office said Rajapaksa had confirmed his resignation plans to the prime minister, adding that the entire cabinet would resign once a deal was reached to form an all-party government.

The political instability could hurt the country’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package, the central bank governor told Reuters in an interview.

Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe signalled he would stay on in the job although he had said in May he could resign if there was no political stability in the island nation of 22 million.

Asked if he would continue to steer the central bank, Weerasinghe said: “I have the responsibility once I have been appointed to serve for (a) six-year term.”

Leaders of the protest movement have said crowds would keep occupying the residences of the president and prime minister in Colombo until they finally quit office. Over the weekend at the president’s house, protesters jumped into the swimming pool, lounged on a four-poster bed, jostled for turns on a treadmill and tried out the sofas.

Colombo was calm on Monday as hundreds of people strolled into the president’s secretariat and residence and toured the colonial-era buildings. Police made no attempt to stop anyone.