Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa to finish term despite protests: ‘I can’t go as failed president’
- Despite months of protests calling for him to step down, Gotabaya Rajapaksa says he was given five-year mandate so will finish the remaining two years – but will not stand again
- Protesters blame Rajapaksa family for decisions that led to severe shortages of everything from fuel to medicine, forcing historic debt default
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa vowed to finish the remaining two years of his term in office despite months long street protests calling for his ouster, but will not stand for re-election as he focuses on fixing a financial mess that tipped Sri Lanka into its worst-ever economic crisis.
“I can’t go as a failed president,” Rajapaksa said on Monday in a wide-ranging interview at his official residence in Colombo, his first with a foreign media organisation since the crisis unfolded.
“I have been given a mandate for five years. I will not contest again.”
The defiance comes in the face of slogans of “Gota Go Home,” with protesters blaming Rajapaksa and his family for decisions that led to severe shortages of everything from fuel to medicine, stoking inflation to 40 per cent and forcing a historic debt default.
01:37
'Sometimes I sleep in the tuk-tuk: taxi mum among the casualties of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis
Thousands of demonstrators have camped outside the president’s seaside office since mid-March, forcing him to retreat to his barricaded official residence about one kilometre away.
