Lankan President Asks Opposition To Join Government As Protests Mount: 10 Points

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday invited the opposition to join a unity government as protests demanding his resignation over a worsening economic crisis spread across the island. "The president invites all political parties in parliament to accept cabinet posts and join the effort to seek solutions to the national crisis," his office said in a statement.

President Rajapaksa today named four ministers to maintain the legitimacy and stability of Parliament and other functions of the country until a full Cabinet is appointed. He replaced his brother Basil Rajapaksa and named Ali Sabry as the new Finance Minister. A permanent cabinet will be appointed after discussions with the Opposition parties.

Sri Lanka's central bank Governor, who had resisted mounting calls for the island nation to seek an IMF bailout, announced his resignation Monday as protests escalated over a worsening economic crisis.

Trading was halted on Sri Lanka's stock exchange seconds after it opened Monday when the blue-chip index dropped 5.92 per cent following a mass cabinet resignation in the face of an economic crisis.

All 26 ministers in the cabinet aside from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa submitted letters of resignation at a late-night meeting yesterday.

 Internet service providers were ordered to block access to social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, but the blackout did not deter several small demonstrations across Sri Lanka. The social media curbs were lifted in the second half of Sunday.

The Lankan President imposed a state of emergency in the country on Friday, the day after a crowd attempted to storm his home in the capital Colombo, and a nationwide curfew was in effect until today morning. At least 664 people were arrested for violating the curfew, officials said.

Western diplomats in Colombo have expressed concern over the use of emergency laws that allow the military to arrest and detain suspects and said they were closely monitoring developments.

A critical lack of foreign currency has left Sri Lanka struggling to service its ballooning $51-billion foreign debt, with the COVID-19 pandemic torpedoing vital revenue from tourism and remittances.

The South Asian nation is facing severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials -- along with record inflation and crippling power cuts -- in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948. Sri Lanka is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.