Sri Lanka

The party leaders who met on Saturday evening decided to appoint Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena as the temporary President until an all-party government is formed. However, Wickremesinghe has not agreed to step down immediately, as he told the media that he would resign once the all-party government is formed and majority in the Parliament is proved by any group which wants to take over.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Rajapaska has informed him that he would stand by any decision taken by the party leaders, who are scheduled to meet on Saturday evening. Amid the collapse of the country's economy, since March 31 people have taken to the streets demanding the resignation of Rajapaksa. The continuous public protests were controlled violently, but it forced then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and all his family members in politics to step down.

Security forces fired teargas and water cannons to disperse the protesters but later withdrew and resorted to firing in the air. At least 20 people have been hospitalised following violent clashes between the police and the protesters. Since early Saturday night, there were attempts to disperse the protesters and university students who had occupied the area near the President's House overnight.

A major people's protest march to Colombo from around the island is planned by religious leaders, political parties, medical practitioners, university teachers, civil rights activists, farmers, and fishermen on Saturday demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Parties representing farmers, fishermen, clergies, medical experts, civil rights groups, political groups and university dons are to march to Colombo and ride their bicycles as transportation has come to complete standstill with no fuel supply. For two weeks, Sri Lanka is in a virtual lockdown with government offices barely functioning with limited staff and schools completely closed with no transport for children and teachers.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Rajapaksa said: "Had a very productive telecon with the Russia President, Vladimir Putin. While thanking him for all the support extended by his government to overcome the challenges of the past, I requested an offer of credit support to import fuel to (Sri Lanka) in defeating the current economic challenges."

"He had a chat with me and wanted to take some pills and went to the car. But later when I called him he didn't respond," a man who was in the same queue told reporters. This incident comes as Sri Lanka suspended the sales of petrol and diesel for non-essential vehicles on June 27 as it struggles to pay for imports like fuel, food and medicines.

"Due to the recent global crises, this situation has become more acute and we, who were in the frying pan, have now fallen into the oven. Due to the Ukraine-Russia war, our problem has worsened. What has happened now is the addition of an international crises on top of our crisis," Wickremesinghe said while addressing Parliament on Monday.

The decision to close schools was reached after a discussion among Ministry officials, Provincial Education Secretaries, and other officials, and after considering the poor attendance of school principals, teachers and students over the last two weeks, mainly due to lack of transport with non-availability of fuel for public transport and personal vehicles.

Minister and Cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardena told reporters that the government decided to limit fuel distribution to essential services like ports, airports, health, food distribution, and agriculture. "This decision was taken to protect the limited reserves of fuel in the country and that they be used only for the essential services," he said.