Srilankan President Resigns and flies to Singapore

President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka emails the parliamentary speaker his letter of resignation.

On Thursday, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka, sent the speaker of the house an email announcing his resignation. Rajapaksa, who left Sri Lanka on Wednesday with his wife, has been granted permission to enter Singapore for a private visit. The foreign ministry of Singapore claims that Rajapaksa has not requested nor been granted refuge.

Rajapaksa spent a day in Male, Maldives, before travelling to Singapore. He designated Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister of Sri Lanka, as acting president and was supposed to resign by the evening of July 13 but did not. After demonstrators stormed the prime minister’s office on Wednesday, the government declared a curfew in the Colombo area from noon on July 14 to 5 am on July 15.