COLOMBO – The office of Sri Lanka’s beleaguered leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is now in his exit process after promising to resign on July 13, said the president will be released only through the Speaker, hours after the prime minister’s office made an announcement of his resignation.
President Rajapaksa’s whereabouts are still unknown, but the Presidential Secretariat has been issuing the president’s statement even after he had fled the official residence when tens of thousands of people stormed it on Saturday (9).
“All messages issued by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be released by the Speaker after the information is given to him by the President,” the Presidential Secretariat said in a statement.
“Therefore, kindly request that only the announcements issued by the Speaker to be considered as official announcements issued by the President,” it emphasized.
The statement came hours after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said that the president has confirmed his resignation as he promised earlier.
However, the Presidential Secretariat did not confirm if Rajapaksa confirmed his resignation to Wickremesinghe and it was not immediately clear why the prime minister’s office issued a statement.
Political sources close to both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe have said there had been an “uneasy peace” between both leaders in the past month.
-economynext.com