Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday called on the opposition to join a unity government to tackle the deepening economic crisis, after all his cabinet ministers resigned, while demonstrations calling for his resignation spread on the island.
"The president calls on all political parties in parliament to accept ministerial positions and join efforts to find solutions to the national crisis," Rajapaksa's office announced in a statement.
All the 26 ministers except President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa submitted their resignations at a meeting held late Sunday night.
Prior to the president's call, the Colombo Stock Exchange stopped trading and the leading stock index fell by 5.92 percent immediately after the opening, in response to the mass resignation of ministers.
Protests took place in this Southeast Asian country over acute shortages of basic commodities, skyrocketing prices and long hours of power outages, in the complete absence of any sign of an end to the economic crisis.
The crisis worsened with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which wiped out tourism and stopped remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad, while the authorities imposed a broad ban on imports in an attempt to save foreign currency.
Unsuccessful political decisions have exacerbated these problems, according to economists, as inappropriate tax cuts prior to the pandemic deprived the state of revenues and led to a high debt burden, and the current crisis may jeopardize hopes for the recovery of the tourism sector.
Sri Lanka has requested assistance from the International Monetary Fund, but negotiations may continue until the end of this year.
President Rajapaksa imposed a state of emergency on Friday, a day after hundreds of protesters attempted to storm his home in the capital, Colombo, and imposed a nationwide curfew until Monday morning.
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- Agencies