Sri Lanka President flown to airbase amid exile rumours

COLOMBO • Speculation was rife yesterday that Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was fleeing into exile abroad, after officials said he was flown to an airbase near the main international airport.

Mr Rajapaksa had fled the presidential palace in Colombo under naval protection last Saturday, shortly before tens of thousands of protesters overran the compound as frustrations over the country's mismanaged economic crisis boiled over. Hours later that day, the parliamentary Speaker announced that Mr Rajapaksa would resign tomorrow to allow a "peaceful transition of power".

The 73-year-old leader had taken refuge at a navy facility, according to a top defence official, before being taken to the Katunayake airbase, which shares a perimeter fence with the country's main Bandaranaike International Airport.

There was no official word from the President's office about his whereabouts, but several local media reports speculated he was set to leave for Dubai. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office said Mr Rajapaksa had officially informed him of his intention to resign, without specifying a date.

Also yesterday, it was announced that Parliament will reconvene on Friday, and a new president will be elected on July 20.

"Nominations for the next president will be presented to Parliament on 19 July. On 20 July, Parliament will vote to elect a new president," Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a statement yesterday. "During the party leaders' meeting held today, it was agreed that this was essential to ensure a new all-party government is in place in accordance with the Constitution and to take forward essential services."

Opposition parties are already trying to cobble together an all-party government and pick candidates who can take over.

The political instability could hurt the country's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package, the central bank governor said in a Reuters interview. Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe signalled that he would stay on in the job, although he had said in May that he could resign if there was no political stability in the island nation of 22 million people.

Meanwhile, leaders of the protest movement said crowds would keep occupying the residences of the President and Prime Minister in Colombo until they finally quit office. "We are not going anywhere till this President leaves and we have a government that is acceptable to the people," said Mr Jude Hansana.

Colombo was calm yesterday as hundreds of people strolled into the President's secretariat and residence, and toured the colonial-era buildings. Police made no attempt to stop anyone.

Mr Rajapaksa and Mr Wickremesinghe were not in their residences last Saturday when the protesters surged into the buildings, and have not been seen in public since last Friday.

Ordinary Sri Lankans blame Mr Rajapaksa for the collapse of the tourism-dependent economy, which was hammered by the Covid-19 pandemic and a temporary ban on chemical fertilisers that damaged farm output.

Government finances were crippled by mounting debt and lavish tax breaks given by the Rajapaksa regime. Foreign exchange reserves were quickly depleted as oil prices rose. The country barely has any dollars left to import fuel, which has been severely rationed, and long queues have formed in front of shops selling cooking gas.

Headline inflation in the country hit 54.6 per cent last month, and the central bank has warned it could rise to 70 per cent in the coming months.