Malé, Maldives- Sri Lanka’s President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled to the Maldives on a military jet hours before he was due to resign.
According to the Sri Lankan Air Force, Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left Sri Lanka in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“Under the provisions of the Constitution and on a request by the government, the Sri Lanka Air Force provided a plane early today to fly the President, his wife and two security officials to the Maldives,” read a statement from the Sri Lankan Air Force.
On their arrival in the Maldives capital of Malé at 3 a.m, they were greeted at the airport by the President, Mohammad Nasheed, and his wife.
At the time of his departure on Wednesday morning, the President still had not submitted a letter of resignation and anti-government protesters had given him until 1 p.m on Wednesday to resign, threatening mass unrest otherwise.
Hundreds of protesters marched toward the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe demanding that he step down after demonstrations were reinforced on Tuesday night by throngs of people arriving in the capital, Colombo, from across Sri Lanka.
Outside the President’s Office, the atmosphere was generally peaceful, with young children accompanying their parents amid an atmosphere of celebration as people were digesting the news that Rajapaksa had fled the country.
Rajapaksa, who was elected in 2019, has been resisting calls for his resignation for months, prompting protests over a severe shortage of food, medicine and fuel which have lasted for months as Sri Lanka has sunk deeper and deeper into a financial crisis for which he is widely blamed.
Moreso, Rajapaksa and five family members who held senior government posts stand accused of widespread corruption and economic mismanagement which has left the country without any foreign currency to import food, fuel and medicines, and pushed inflation to record levels.
Nevertheless, lawmakers have agreed to elect a new President next week, but they have struggled to decide on who will take over as Prime Minister and fill the Cabinet.
The new President will then serve the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in 2024 and could potentially appoint a new Prime Minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament.
For days, people have flocked to the Presidential palace almost as if it were a tourist attraction swimming in the pool, marvelling at the paintings and lounging on the beds piled high with pillows and at one point, they also burned the Prime Minister’s private home.
