Explained: What happens in Sri Lanka after the president resigns?

The “Gota go home” cries have been heard. Finally. After clinging on to power for more than four months, the Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that he will step down. He has reportedly signed his resignation letter.

Rajapaksa fled the presidential palace in Colombo on Saturday, shortly before tens of thousands of protesters overran the compound. Angered over the mismanagement of the economy, which led to an unprecedented crisis in the state, the public has been demanding that both the president and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should quit. The PM, who was appointed after the ouster of Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya’s brother, also said that he would resign.

Explained: What led to the fall of Sri Lanka’s powerful Rajapaksa clan?

“To ensure the continuation of the government including the safety of all citizens I accept the best recommendation of the Party Leaders today, to make way for an All-Party Government. To facilitate this I will resign as Prime Minister,” he tweeted on Saturday. His residence was also set ablaze by angry demonstrators.

To ensure the continuation of the Government including the safety of all citizens I accept the best recommendation of the Party Leaders today, to make way for an All-Party Government.

To facilitate this I will resign as Prime Minister.

— Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) July 9, 2022

So what happens in Sri Lanka politics next? We take a look.

Who has resigned so far?

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that he will officially step down on 13 June. While Wickremesinghe has announced that he would resign as PM he did not mention a date.

Over the weekend, four other ministers stepped down.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to go on 9 May after protesters turned violent and torched the ancestral home of the political family in Lanka’s Hambantota.

Gotabaya is the last of the Rajapaksa brothers to announce his resignation – that too reluctantly. Earlier he forced Chaminda and Basil to quit to shield himself from public wrath.

On 3 April, mass resignations by top ministers meant that the Sri Lankan government’s Cabinet was effectively dissolved. Around 26 ministers quit that weekend, including the Sri Lankan central bank Governor and a close associate of Mahinda, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, and Gotabaya’s nephew Namal Rajapaksa.

What happens after the president resigns?

According to Article 40 of the Sri Lankan Constitution, if the office of the president falls vacant before the expiration of his term of office, Parliament shall elect the president from one of its members. The successor will hold office for the rest of the term of the resigning president.

The election has to be held within a month of the president’s resignation. It’s a secret ballot and the candidate can be appointed to the post only on winning an absolute majority.

Between the time of resignation and the selection of the new president, the prime minister will function as the acting president. He will appoint a member of this Cabinet to take over the PM’s responsibilities.

But what happens if the PM also resigns?

If the office of the PM is vacant, the Speaker shall function as an acting president.

What next in the present situation in Sri Lanka?

If Wickremesinghe is still the prime minister when Gotabaya officially announces his resignation, then he can function as president until a new one is appointed. It’s probably why Wickremesinghe has not mentioned a specific date of his resignation.

According to a report in Daily Mirror, Wickremesinghe will be sworn in as the president for a temporary period until a new one is elected by the Parliament.

However, this might not go down well with rival parties. At the all-parties conference on Saturday, leaders insisted that both Gotabaya and Wickremesinghe must resign before the formation of an interim government.

Dullas Alahapperuma, a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, who attended the all-party meeting on Saturday, tweeted saying that an “overwhelming majority agreed” that the president and prime minister must resign immediately and that Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena will become acting president.

Participated in the Party Leaders meeting, presided by the Speaker. An overwhelming majority agreed to the following.

1. The President @GotabayaR & the Prime Minister @RW_UNP must resign immediately.

2. Speaker @YapaMahinda to become the Acting President.

— Dullas Alahapperuma (@DullasOfficial) July 9, 2022

How important is the Speaker?

Abeywardena presided over the crucial all-party meeting. He remains an important figure because if Wickremesinghe is forced to quit before Gotabaya, the speaker will step in as acting president.

It was discussed in the conference that after the president and PM officially quit, Abeywardena would convene Parliament for the election of the new president and would act as an interim president, according to a report in The Indian Express.

What about an all-party government?

Political parties in Sri Lanka are scrambling to form an all-party government. The entire Sri Lankan Cabinet will resign and hand over its responsibilities to a new all-party interim government as soon as it is formed, Wickremesinghe’s office said on 11 July.

After a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office on the president’s resignation, the presidential secretariat said that any communication from Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be released only through the Speaker of Parliament, signalling a possible rift between the two leaders.

“All messages issued by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be released by the Speaker after the information is given to him by the President,” the presidential secretariat said in a statement quoted by the newspaper Economy Next.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said that there was “no alternative solution other than the appointment of the government led by a new President and the Prime Minister”. He announced that he was ready to “lead the program of stabilising the country and building the country’s economy”, reports The Indian Express.

According to media reports, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, the country’s main Opposition party, hopes to nominate its leader Premadasa for the president’s post.

A vote for the next President will take place in Parliament on 20 July, while the country’s main Parliamentary Opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), hopes to nominate its Leader Sajith Premadasa for the position. https://t.co/7uw5qHXjfD

— The Morning (@TheMorningLK) July 12, 2022

Will old equations come into play?

Premadasa is a nemesis of Wickremesinghe and does not want him to continue in office at any cost. He quit Wickremesinghe’s United National Pary (UNP) ahead of the 2020 parliamentary elections and formed the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB). The UNP did not win a single seat.

Abeywardena is a Rajapaksa loyalist and this could come in the way of the efforts to form an all-party government.

Once Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation is publicly announced on 13 July, the Parliament will convene on 15 July to announce the vacancy and reconvene on July 19 to accept nominations for president, according to the Speaker. A parliamentary ballot will be held on 20 July to elect the president.

However, with old rivalries, new challenges, and ever-changing political equations, for now, uncertainty looms large over Sri Lanka.

With inputs from agencies

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