Economic downturns lead to Rajapaksa’s fall

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned Monday following weeks of protests demanding that he and his brother, the president, step down over the country's worst economic crisis in decades.

Rajapaksa said on Twitter that he submitted his resignation letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. 

Referring to the letter, Reuters reported that the 76-year-old prime minister said he was quitting to help form an interim all party government.

The resignation comes after authorities deployed armed troops in the capital, Colombo, on Monday following an attack earlier in the day by government supporters on protesters who have been camped outside the offices of the president and prime minister.

According to media reports, the violence triggered widespread anger, with people singling out Rajapaksa supporters and attacking them in many parts of the country. Buses carrying the supporters back from the morning meeting were blocked and also attacked. 

Homes of some government ministers and politicians supporting the Rajapaksas were attacked and some set on fire.

At least three people, including an MP, were killed and more than 150 wounded in the chaos.

The Hindu reported Sri Lanka's ruling-party MP Amarakeerthi Athukorala died in Monday clashes as the lawmaker shot dead an anti-government protester and then took his own life during a confrontation outside the capital.

The Indian Ocean island nation is on the brink of bankruptcy and has suspended payments on its foreign loans. For several months, Sri Lankans have endured long lines to buy scarce fuel, cooking gas, food and medicine, most of which come from abroad, BBC reported. 

Shortages of hard currency have also hindered imports of raw materials for manufacturing and worsened inflation.

Rajapaksa's resignation means that the entire cabinet is dissolved.

Earlier Monday, supporters of the prime minister rallied inside his office, urging him to ignore the protesters' demand to step down. Rajapaksa told them in a meeting that he is used to protests and revolts and would not run away from challenges.

After the gathering, the Rajapaksa supporters went to the front of the prime minister's official residence where protesters have been demonstrating for several days. They attacked the protesters with wooden and iron poles, pulled their camping tents down and set them on fire as police looked on.

The attack occurred despite a state of emergency declared by the president last Friday which gives him wide powers for riot control.

A bankrupt nation

Hit hard by the pandemic, rising oil prices and tax cuts, Sri Lanka has as little as $50 million of useable foreign reserves, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said last week.

The government has approached the International Monetary Fund for a bailout and will begin a virtual summit later on Monday with officials from the multilateral lender aimed at securing emergency assistance.

Long queues for cooking gas seen in recent days have frequently turned into impromptu protests as frustrated consumers blocked roads.

Domestic energy companies said they were running low on stocks of liquid petroleum gas mainly used for cooking. Sri Lanka needs at least 40,000 tonnes of gas each month, and the monthly import bill would be $40 million at current prices.

"We are a bankrupt nation. Banks do not have sufficient dollars for us to open lines of credit and we cannot go to the black market. We are struggling to keep our businesses afloat," Laugfs company's chairman WHK Wegapitiya told Al Jazeera.

What next?

In his resignation letter to the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa recommended the formation of an all-party interim government.

But uncertainty looms over who will take over the post of the prime minister. 

Key opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) confirmed earlier that its leader Sajith Premadasa will not accept the PM's post in an interim government.

Shortly before resigning, Mahinda Rajapaksa said I a tweet, "While emotions are running high in #lka, I urge our general public to exercise restraint and remember that violence only begets violence. The economic crisis we're in needs an economic solution which this administration is committed to resolving." 

Apart from the political uncertainty, it appears that economic woes are not easing up for the island nation anytime soon. 

Sri Lanka has been holding talks with the International Monetary Fund to get an immediate funding facility as well as a long-term rescue plan. But the country was told that the progress would depend on negotiations on debt restructuring with creditors.

Any long-term plan would take at least six months to get underway, reported ABC News.