The Sri Lankan president was prevented on Tuesday from going into exile abroad by immigration officials at the capital’s airport, official sources said, quoted by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
Immigration officials denied Gotabaya Rajapaksa access to the VIP lounge at Colombo airport to stamp her passport, when The head of state wanted to prevent the terminal from being open to the publicfearing people’s reaction.
Rajapaksa has not yet resigned, which he has promised to do to enable a “peaceful transition of power”.
The head of state and his wife had spent the night at a military base near the international airport after missing four flights that could have taken them to the United Arab Emirates.
Outgoing Sri Lankan President’s Trip To Air Base Fuels Exile Rumors
the younger brotherBasil, who resigned as finance minister in April, I also missed the flight to Dubai after a similar episode with immigration.
“Other passengers protested against Basil’s boarding,” an airport official told AFP. “It was a tense situation, so [Basil] I left the airport in a hurry,” he added.
Basil, who also has US citizenship, had to apply for a new passport after leaving the document at the presidential palace when the Rajapaksa family fled Saturday in the face of thousands of protesters, a diplomatic source said.
Sri Lankan President announces his resignation after the invasion of the official residence
The president’s office is not releasing information on the whereabouts of the still head of state, but Rajapaksa remains the commander-in-chief of the army, with military resources at his disposal.
For the same reason, he still has the option of leaving the country on a military ship bound for India or the Maldives, a defense source said.
If the Head of State resigns as promised, the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe will be automatically named president in office until parliament elects a deputy to exercise power until the end of the current term, i.e. until November 2024.
However, Wickremesinghe is also being challenged by protesters camped in front of the presidential palace, who for more than three months have been demanding the president’s resignation in the face of the unprecedented economic crisis the country is experiencing.
Rajapaksa is accused of economic mismanagement, which led the country to assume the inability to finance the most essential imports for its 22 million inhabitants, due to the lack of foreign exchange.
Columbus failed in payment of the external debt of 51 billion dollars (50.9 billion euros) in April and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for possible emergency aid.
Source: Observadora
