NEW DELHI, July 15 — Sri Lanka’s Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Friday confirmed that Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned as the country’s president.
Gotabaya emailed his resignation letter on Thursday after reaching Singapore from the Maldives, having fled Sri Lanka on a military aircraft on Wednesday following mass protests against his rule.
He earlier had named Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president.
“Gotabaya has legally resigned,” Abeywardana said.
A retired military officer who played a key role in bringing the decades-long Sri Lankan civil war to an end, Gotabaya became president in November 2019.
Maldivian Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, who has close ties with Sri Lanka, disclosed in a social media post on Thursday that Gotabaya was no longer president.
“President GR has resigned. I hope Sri Lanka can now move forward. I believe the President would not have resigned if he were still in Sri Lanka, and fearful of losing his life. I commend the thoughtful actions of the Govt of Maldives. My best wishes to the people of Sri Lanka,” Nasheed tweeted.
Many Sri Lankans have criticised the Maldives for helping Gotabaya to escape. Gotabaya’s resignation marks the Rajpaksa clan’s spectacular fall after holding sway over Sri Lankan politics for two decades.
His younger brother Basil Rajapaksa, who holds American citizenship, quit as finance minister in April, while elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as prime minister in May.
