Sri Lanka PM Rajapaksa resigns amid government shut down fears

Sri Lanka’s embattled Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on Saturday, only a month and a half after taking office and giving the country’s president political space to prevent an imminent government shutdown.

The South Asian island has been in political limbo since President Maithripala Sirisena in late October replaced former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with Rajapaksa, who was then twice sacked by parliament but had refused to resign.

But as a government shutdown loomed, Rajapaksa put in his papers and said in a statement on Saturday that a change of government that “the people expected” has now been put off.

“I have no intention of remaining as Prime Minister without a general election being held, and in order to not hamper the President in any way, I will resign from the position of Prime Minister and make way for the President to form a new government,” Rajapaksa said in the statement.

He emphasised the need for an election to resolve the county’s economic and political crisis and said the main challenge now was to form a government. He also spoke against what he described as the “destructive forces” of people seeking to restore their former offices.

“We will bring the forces opposed to the country down to their knees by organising the people,” Rajapaksa said.