Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, derided by a strong popular movement, left his country early Wednesday aboard a military plane to travel to the Maldives.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, accompanied by his wife and a bodyguard, landed on Wednesday morning in the Maldives where he was taken under police escort to an as yet unknown destination. The 73-year-old leader, who promised to resign for a ” peaceful transition of power “, had left Sri Lanka a little earlier aboard an Antonov-32 of the Air Force. According to airport sources, the aircraft was held for over an hour on the airport tarmac awaiting clearance to land in the Maldives.
A navy vessel was used to transfer the head of state on Saturday from the presidential palace besieged by protesters to the port of Trincomalee in the northeast of the country. In this leak, the Sri Lankan president left behind a suitcase full of documents and 17.85 million rupees (49,000 euros) in cash, now under seal.
He then joined Colombo International Airport by helicopter on Monday. But on Tuesday, immigration officials refused him access to the VIP lounge to have his passport stamped, while the head of state wanted to avoid the terminal open to the public, fearing the reaction of the population.
An already disputed successor
The head of state and his wife had spent the night from Monday to Tuesday at a military base near the international airport after missing four flights that could have taken them to the United Arab Emirates. His younger brother Basil, who resigned as finance minister in April, also missed his flight to Dubai after a similar run-in with immigration.
If the head of state resigns as promised, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will automatically be appointed as interim president until parliament elects an MP who will hold office until the end of the current term, c that is to say November 2024. However, this is also contested by the demonstrators who have been camping in front of the Presidential Secretariat for more than three months to demand the resignation of the president due to the unprecedented economic crisis that the country is going through.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa is accused of having mismanaged the economy, leading to the inability of the country, in lack of foreign exchange, to finance the most essential imports for a population of 22 million inhabitants. Colombo defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in April and is in talks with the IMF for a possible bailout. Sri Lanka has almost exhausted its gasoline reserves. The government has ordered the closure of non-essential offices and schools to reduce travel and save fuel.
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(With AFP)