Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who has been in the Maldives since Wednesday morning, after fleeing Sri Lanka amid an unprecedented citizens’ protest, boarded a flight to Singapore at 11.39 Male time, a top source told The Hindu.
Despite promising to resign on July 13, Gotabaya has stayed in office, appointing his Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president, in blatant defiance of persisting calls for both their resignations. It remains to be seen if Gotabaya will resign on Thursday, after making at least three announcements to do so in the last five days.
The developments come when Sri Lanka faces a grave economic crisis and political tumult.
Meera Sreenivasan is The Hindu Correspondent in Colombo