Oppn party rejects president’s offer to form interim govt

Sri Lanka’s main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) said on Sunday that it 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 caused by the worst-ever economic crisis.

“Our leader refused to accept the president’s offer,” Tissa Attanayake, the national organiser for SJB told reporters.

Rajapaksa made a phone call to both Premadasa and Harsha de Silva, the SJB economic guru, on the prospect of forming an interim government, a demand endorsed by the powerful Buddhist clergy as well as the group which had broken away from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) coalition. But to no avail. Premadasa, 55, has already announced in the past that he would not be a party to any government headed by the two Rajapaksas - Gotabaya and his brother, PM Mahinda.

The SJB announced on Saturday that they would back the proposal from the lawyers’ body, Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), which advocated for the set up of an interim government for a period of 18 months with a move to abolish the presidential system of governance.

They had also called for the repealing of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution which conferred unfettered powers to the president in 2020.

The BASL called for the restoration of the 19 Amendment to the Constitution which had empowered parliament over the president. The SJB is going to have a discussion with the BASL on this proposal, leader Harin Fernando said.

The 19A adopted in 2015 pruned presidential powers by empowering the parliament above the executive president. But it was scrapped after Gotabaya won the November 2019 presidential election.

SL in talks with AIIB for emergency funding

The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is considering granting $100 million in emergency support to Sri Lanka, the country’s finance ministry said on Sunday.

Sri Lanka has requested foreign-exchange liquidity support for state banks from the lender, it said in a statement.

The multilateral AIIB, founded in 2014 to promote infrastructure investing throughout Asia, draws most of its funding from China.

China is Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral lender, with an outstanding balance of $6.5 billion mostly lent over the past decade for large infrastructure projects, including highways, a port, an airport and a coal power plant.