Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register COLOMBO, July 13 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa left the country early on Wednesday, two sources told Reuters, hours before he was due to step down amid widespread protests over his handling of a devastating economic crisis. Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left on a Sri Lankan Air Force plane, an immigration official told Reuters. A government source said he left for the city of Male, the capital of the Maldives. The president would likely go to another Asian country from there, the source said. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register The immigration official said authorities could not legally prevent a sitting president from leaving the country. Rajapaksa was due to step down as president on Wednesday to pave the way for a unity government after thousands of protesters stormed his and the prime minister’s official residences on Saturday demanding their ouster. read more The president has not appeared in public since Friday. The Parliament will elect his replacement on July 20. The Rajapaksa family, including former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has dominated politics in the country of 22 million for years, and most Sri Lankans blame them for the current problems. The tourism-dependent economy has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and a drop in foreign remittances from Sri Lanka, while a ban on chemical fertilizers has devastated farm production. The ban was later reversed. The Rajapaksas implemented populist tax cuts in 2019 that hit state finances while shrinking foreign exchange reserves limited imports of fuel, food and medicine. Petrol has been severely discounted and long queues have formed in front of shops selling cooking gas. Core inflation hit 54.6% last month and the central bank has warned it could rise to 70% in the coming months. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president’s brother, resigned as prime minister in May after anti-family protests turned violent. He remained hidden in a military base in the east of the country for a few days before returning to Colombo. Anti-government protests have simmered since May, but flared up again last Saturday when hundreds of thousands of people poured into Colombo and occupied key government buildings and residences. read more On Tuesday, immigration officials prevented another of the president’s brothers, former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, from flying out of the country. read more It was not clear where Basil Rajapaksa, who also holds US citizenship, was trying to go. He resigned as finance minister in early April amid intense street protests against fuel and food shortages, and resigned from his seat in parliament in June. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh. Written by Raju Gopalakrishnan. Edited by Sam Holmes and Christian Schmollinger Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
