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Sri Lanka: former President calls for new polls as crisis deepens.
Amidst the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, Maithripala Srisena Addressing a May Day rally organized in Polonnaruwa, former Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), on Sunday with the motive to focus on the recent situation and called for a new election in the country. Srisena said in the speech that politicians should come ahead to help the citizens in this time when the country is facing a great misfortune, and he also said he took to the streets to make the people relax and promised to help them out with their requirements, on the International Labor Day for this purpose.
“I have gone to the street of the country because this ruling government in power is not taking any fruitful actions for the citizens of their country and also not ready for the submission that the government is incapable even when people, from the richest in the country to innocent, farmers and civil servants have taken to the street to demand the government to come home. And I want to form a new government in the country who in the time of crisis will work to overcome the situation, and we will do that,” Srisena said addressing the rally on Labor Day.
Srisena added, “Farmers in Polonnaruwa have the hope and dedication, of making their country self-sufficient in agriculture from the Moragahakanda Reservoir, which is now unable to farm even per diem basis. Today I am playing a part in the May Day rally of the working-class people who marked up the united voice of farmer community and lighted its issues and challenges to the regnant class of the country.”
The former president also forewarned that if the current leaders holding the power stayed on, it will create an unfortunate situation in the country and there would be a huge trouble, where people would die at home. Srisena also said that already two or three lakhs of people in the country were fainting from lack of food and people all over the country trying to find out the solution in process of their try, he is receiving calls from people asking for the help.
Sri Lanka has never been through such a tough situation and is facing its worst economic crisis since independence with food and fuel shortages, soaring prices, and power cuts, affecting a large number of people, resulting in colossal disapproval over the way the government is handling the situation.
The downturn in the country is ascribed to a shortage of foreign exchange caused due to a decrement in the ratio of tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic, and one of the reasons behind the same result is the rash economic policies made by the government, the government move last year to ban chemical fertilisers in a bid to make Sri Lanka’s agriculture hundred per cent organic, which also leads to the current situation of the country.
Due to relentless shortages of foreign exchange, Sri Lanka recently defaulted on all its external entirety of its foreign debt amounting to about USD 51 billion. . The financial layout has open on to a large protest in the country which is fabricated for the resignation of the Prime Minister Mahindra Rajapaksa and President Gotabbaya Rajapaksa.
