Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa late on Tuesday revoked the emergency rule ordinance that had gone into effect on April 1, even as the government struggled to quell protests amid the nation's worst economic crisis in decades.
In a Gazette notification, Rajapaksa said the emergency rule ordinance would stand revoked as of midnight on April 5.
Earlier in the day, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's ruling coalition lost its majority in parliament on Tuesday after at least 41 lawmakers walked out of the alliance amid growing unrest over an economic crisis
Sri Lanka's opposition yesterday dismissed President Rajapaksa's invitation to join a unity government as "nonsensical" and instead demanded he resigns over the country's worsening shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
Mr Rajapaksa's overture came as armed troops looked to quell more demonstrations over what the government acknowledges is the country's worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.
Every member of Sri Lanka's cabinet except the president and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned late Sunday.
