The debt-ridden country, led by Rajapaksa and his family since 2019, is finding it difficult to pay for imports of fuel and other goods due to a lack of foreign exchange, leading to long power outages and shortages of basic necessities. read more The police used tear gas to dissolve hundreds of protesters who gathered outside the Prime Minister’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Tangalle, South Sri Lanka. Mahida, the president’s older brother, was missing at the time in Colombo, the country’s commercial capital, where peaceful protests continued into the night. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “Protesters broke into two roadblocks set up near the house and police had to use tear gas to disperse the protesters,” said police spokeswoman Nihal Talduva. Crowds also gathered outside the homes of six lawmakers and the party office of a former state minister spread across the country, he said. “Police continue to provide security in MPs’ homes,” Thalduwa said. After several protesters called for Rajapaksa’s total removal, the president’s media office said in a statement that four new ministers had been appointed “to ensure that parliament and other tasks can be carried out legally until a full cabinet is sworn in.” The president’s nephew resigned as sports minister in the ousted government while the governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) offered to resign. CBSL delayed announcing its monetary policy scheduled for Tuesday. Former CBSL official P. Nandalal Weerasinghe said Monday that he had accepted Rajapaksa’s offer to become the next central bank governor. “The president called me and made me an offer and I accepted,” Weersinghe told Reuters. The president’s media office reported that Justice Minister Ali Sambri had been appointed finance minister, replacing Basil Rajapaksa, the president’s younger brother, who was due to visit Washington this month for talks with the International Monetary Fund. loan program. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Education and Motorways will retain their positions. “The president calls on all political parties represented in parliament to come together to accept ministerial portfolios in order to find solutions to this national crisis,” the media office said. Udaya Gammanpila, leader of one of the 11 political parties in the ruling coalition, called the new cabinet “old wine in a new bottle”. “Our request is for a transitional government of all parties to restore basic services and hold parliamentary elections,” Gambanpila of the Pivithur party, Hella Uromaya, wrote on Twitter. “People should decide their next leaders, not just anyone else.” Sajith Premadasa, the leader of Sri Lanka’s main opposition party, has rejected Rajapaksa’s proposal to form a unity government. “This is a distorted and corrupt government that has brought the people to their knees. The demand of the people is for a government like this to go home immediately,” he said in a video statement. Protests erupted in many parts of Sri Lanka, including its largest city, Colombo, over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades. “THIS GOVERNMENT IS OVER” The developments come after the president declared a state of emergency on Friday, following street demonstrations in the island nation of 22 million. The regulator said the daily power outages would be reduced to 6-1 / 2 hours for the rest of the week from about seven now, as the energy ministry pledged to release 26,000 tonnes of diesel and furnace oil at multiple power plants. Charmara Nakandala, a protester, dismissed the cabinet changes as futile. “This cabinet reshuffle is to try to fool people,” Nakandala, a marketing executive, told a rally in Colombo. “This government is over. Rajapaksas can no longer save it by playing musical chairs.” Sri Lanka, outside the southern tip of India, is also battling a spike in inflation after the government sharply devalued its currency last month ahead of talks with the IMF. Sri Lanka’s expenditures exceeded its revenues under successive governments, while the production of tradable goods and services was insufficient. The twin deficits were badly exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic that crippled tourism, its financial backbone. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Uditha Jayasinghe and Devjyot Ghoshal. Additional references by Waruna Karunatilake in Colombo and Karin Strohecker in London. Writing by Krishna N. Das? Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, David Holmes and Leslie Adler Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
