President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will make a special televised address at 9.00 p.m. tonight (11).
It has been 48 hours since Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned amid mass protests at the government's handling of a deepening economic crisis. However, the President has so far failed to appoint a new Prime Minister or Cabinet of Ministers.
A special Party Leaders' meeting to discuss the current situation of the country was held virtually via Zoom at 3.00pm today (11).
In this backdrop, it is reported that a meeting between the President and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is currently underway at the President's House in Colombo.
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa had declined the President's invitation to form an interim government. The SJB leader had imposed conditions in order for him to accept the Premiership.
Meanwhile, Dullas Alahapperuma, Wijeydasa Rajapaksha and Nimal Siripala de Silva were earmarked as potential candidates for the vacant position of Prime Minister after a group of parliamentarians who became independent in Parliament met this afternoon.
It is also learnt that a top monk group had requested the President to appoint former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya as the Prime Minister.
Weeks of overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations against Sri Lanka's crippling economic crisis boiled over on Monday (09), with at least nine people killed and furious mobs torching the homes of government lawmakers.
The island-wide curfew imposed with effect from 7.00 p.m. on May 09 has been extended to 7.00 a.m. on Wednesday (May 11).
