Sri Lanka president resigns

SRI LANKA - Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, plans to step down from the presidency on July 13, the speaker of the country’s parliament said on Saturday.

This follows after thousands of protesters stormed the residence of the president in Colombo, the country’s capital, on Saturday demanding his resignation. Crowds of flag-waving demonstrators enraged by Rajapaksa’s handling of the worst economic crisis in that country has faced in decades, gathered in front of the official State residence of the president, and despite heavy security protestors stormed past the security forces and marched into the residence.

The president is said to have been taken to a safer location, with some reports saying that he is near the airport, but this cannot be confirmed.

Before breaking into the government buildings on Saturday, the protesters dismantled several police barricades in Colombo’s government district. A witness says police fired shots in the air but were unable to stop the crowd from surrounding the presidential residence.

Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, said in a video statement, that President Rajapaksa has informed him that he would step down from his post on

Wednesday.

Abeywardena said, ‘The decision to step down on July 13 was taken to ensure a peaceful handover of power,’ ‘I therefore request the public to respect the law and maintain peace,’ he concluded.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, called for an emergency meeting of all political party leaders and cabinet to discuss the situation and find a way forward to dealing with the power vacuum that President Gotabaya’s resignation would leave.

Footage circulating across social media shows protesters lounging on a four poster bed and plunging into a swimming pool at the residence.