Sri Lanka economic crisis: President Rajapkasa to meet leaders of ally SLFP today

On Tuesday, SLFP lawmakers were among 41 MPs who left the ruling coalition, thus leaving it short of the majority mark.

Amid the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka, the island nation’s worse since it gained freedom from British rule in 1948, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will on Sunday chair a meeting with leaders of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), whose MPs recently quit the ruling alliance, according to local media.

People hold placards as they demand Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign after his government lost its majority in the parliament, amid the country's economic crisis, during a protest near to a road leading to the parliament building in Colombo, Sri Lanka. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

“A crucial meeting between SLFP and President Gotabaya Rajapksa is scheduled to be held at 7pm (local time) today to find a solution to the economic, social and political mess affecting the country, ex-President and SLFP leader Maithripala Sirisena said today,” news agency ANI reported, citing Sri Lankan media.

“The main objective is to form an interim administration under an all-party Cabinet sans the Rajapaksas with the least number of portfolios,” Maithripala Sirisena, SLFP leader and Rajapaksa's predecessor, was quoted as saying. On Tuesday, as many as 41 MPs, including all 15 SLFP lawmakers, quit the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)-led coalition, taking away its majority mark.

The development came at a time when Rajapaksa is facing intense pressure domestically to resign, both from the opposition, as well as protesters, who have taken to streets across the country, to express their anger over the ongoing crisis. The Rajapaksa family, in particular, has come in for scathing criticism for the mess; besides President Gotabaya, as many as four members of the family, including Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, were serving in the Cabinet which resigned recently. Only the President and the Prime Minister have continued in their respective posts.

In further setback to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the main opposition party—Samagi Jana Balwegaya (SJL)—plans to move no-confidence motion against him. The opposition has already rejected the President’s request to form a ‘unity government.’

(With ANI inputs)