Sri Lankan President Wickremesinghe writes to MPs, pitches all-party govt

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has written to members of Parliament, inviting them to kind an all-party nationwide authorities to assist the bankrupt nation to get better from the worst financial disaster.

“The government is currently engaged in great efforts to gradually restore normalcy to the political and social unrest created by the economic crisis that the country is facing today,” Wickremesinghe said in the letter on Friday.

“Accordingly, initial plans required to implement a systematic economic programme are being formulated while preliminary measures are also being undertaken for the creation of economic stability,” he added.

Wickremesinghe stated a programme might solely be carried out with the participation of all political events represented in Parliament, skilled teams and civil society.

He additionally proposed to begin a dialogue with events on the reintroduction of the nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

The 19A adopted in 2015 pruned presidential powers by empowering Parliament above the chief president.

Wickremesinghe was the primary sponsor of the nineteenth Amendment in 2015.

However, the 19A was scrapped after Gotabaya Rajapaksa received the November 2019 presidential election.

Sri Lankan MPs on July 20 elected Wickremesinghe because the nation’s new president, with nearly all of the vote coming from lawmakers representing ousted President Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) occasion.

There had been solely two non-SLPP lawmakers within the Cabinet appointed on Friday. Constitutionally, the Cabinet will be prolonged as much as 30 members.

The 73-year-old President was appointed for the remainder of the time period of Rajapaksa who initially fled to the Maldives after which to Singapore.

READ | ‘Country is bankrupt’: PM Wickremesinghe says Lanka to current debt restructuring programme to IMF by Aug

Rajapaksa is accused of mishandling the financial disaster, the worst since 1948.

Wickremesinghe was appointed prime minister by Rajapaksa in mid-May.

He was tasked with reviving the financial system by giving early options to gas, cooking fuel and energy scarcity issues, which triggered mass agitations towards Rajapaksa.

The authorities declared chapter in mid-April by refusing to honour its worldwide debt.

Wickremesinghe on Wednesday stated his authorities’s predominant priorities are to repair the nation’s ailing financial system and finish the extreme gas scarcity that has exacerbated after the final cargo beneath the Indian credit score line arrived within the nation in June.

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