According to the Presidential Secretariat, all messages issued by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be released by the Speaker after the President provides him with information.
As a result, the Secretariat requested that only announcements made by the Speaker be considered official presidential announcements.
This came just hours after the Prime Minister’s Media Unit announced that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had officially informed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of his intention to resign from the presidency.
On Saturday (9), President Rajapaksa announced his resignation, hours after a large crowd of angry protestors stormed the presidential palace.
“To ensure a peaceful transition, the President said he will step down on 13 July,” Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana had said in a televised statement.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had called a meeting with political leaders and said he was willing to step down to pave the way for a unity government.
At the meeting, chaired by the Speaker, the party leaders came to the consensus that the President and the Prime Minister must resign immediately.
The Speaker, in his statement, stated that the President agreed to implement the decisions taken by the political party leaders.
