Oppn party rejects president’s offer to form interim govt

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s main Opposition SJB said on Sunday that it has rejected an offer by embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to its leader Sajith Premadasa to head an interim government, amid continued political uncertainty in the country which is now under a state of emergency.

“Our leader refused to accept the president’s offer,” Tissa Attanayake, the national organiser for Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) told reporters. Rajapaksa had called over the telephone both Premadasa and Harsha de Silva, the SJB economic guru, on the prospect of forming an interim government which had been a demand endorsed by the powerful Buddhist clergy as well as the group which had broken away from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna coalition.

Premadasa, 55, has already announced that he would not be a party to any government headed by the two Rajapaksas Gotabaya and PM Mahinda.