Sri Lankan Prime Minister proposes all-party government

Colombo, Jul 9 (Prensa Latina) The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, proposed to the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to establish an all-party government, in a special statement released today by the media.

July 9, 2022
11:42

Wickremesinghe urged the Sri Lankan leader to form a new government amid the country’s troubled economic situation, according to News First.

The island nation of 22 million people is facing a severe foreign currency shortage that is limiting essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging the nation into its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.

This Saturday, leaders of political parties requested in an urgent meeting the resignation of the president and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, while the head of the Parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, of the ruling Sri Lanka People’s Front party, would take on the provisional leadership of the island territory, overwhelmed by the economic crisis, news website Ada Derana reported.

Mass protests against the government gained momentum on Saturday and demonstrators demanded the resignation of the president and occupied his official residence in Colombo, the commercial capital, despite receiving a barrage of tear gas and water cannons as they advanced through police barricades.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said he is ready to give up his portfolio, to make way for the creation of an all-party government.

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