Sri Lanka crisis: Celebrations as President Rajapaksa resigns, official announcement on Friday | Top points

Sri Lanka parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said on Thursday that he has received Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation via email.

After months of protest, embattled Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa finally resigned on Thursday. The news was received with dance and celebration by the citizens as seen in some of the videos that surfaced on social media. However, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in a special statement, has now clarified that the official announcement of Rajapaksa's resignation will happen on Friday at 7.30am (local time). Abeywardena added that the legality of Rajapaksa's resignation email and other procedures need to be verified first before the announcement is made.

Demonstrators cheer after hearing news that Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's president, emailed a letter of resignation, at a protest site close to the president's office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Thursday, July 14, 2022. (Buddhika Weerasinghe/Bloomberg)

In Rajapaksa's absence, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken over as the acting President - much to the ire of the protestors. It has been their demand for long that both leaders step down from their respective roles, and the PM's taking over the charge of the president triggered fresh unrest in the country on Wednesday. A mob stormed inside Wickremesinghe's office, with some climbing atop the building and waving the national flag of Sri Lanka. Police had fired several rounds of tear gas shells to stop this from happening but to no avail.

The situation returned to calm earlier on Thursday after protestors abandoned government buildings.

Here are the top five updates on the Sri Lanka crisis:

1. Amid speculations related to Rajapaksa's whereabouts, the Singaporean foreign ministry said the Sri Lankan president has been allowed entry to the country on a private visit. In a statement, the ministry said neither Rajapaksa has sought nor Singapore has given “asylum” to him. “Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum,” the statement added.

2. Rajapaksa fled his country and landed in Male, the Maldives on Wednesday. Soon after he reached there, Sri Lankans living in the Maldives staged a protest against his entry and it was later reported that Rajapaksa would first go to Singapore and then to Saudi Arabia. However, it is not yet confirmed if Singapore is the final destination of the fleeing Lankan president.

3. Rajapaksa sent his resignation via an email to Abeywardena on Thursday evening. He was supposed to resign on Wednesday itself as he had earlier told the speaker. Lankan presidents have immunity from arrests during their time in office; hence Rajapaksa's move to flee the country is now being seen as a safety net since the public back home has vocally called for his punishment over claims that he mishandled the country's economy.

4. Protestors earlier in the day retreated from many government buildings they had seized and military troops reinforced security at Parliament. This brought about calm in the island nation.

5. India, which has earlier sent supplies to Sri Lanka to help the country combat the aftermath of the worst economic crisis, reiterated on Thursday that it was monitoring the evolving situation in its neighbouring country and said that their relations are historic and comprehensive. “We are monitoring evolving situation in Sri Lanka… Our ties with Sri Lanka are historic and comprehensive and we continue to engage with all relevant stakeholders in that country,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. The statement came a day after the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka debunked media reports about the country helping Rajapaksa's escape to overseas as “speculative” and “baseless”.