Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, backed by the ruling coalition led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was re-elected deputy speaker after having resigned in April.

A majority vote in the 225-member Parliament would be needed to remove Rajapaksa and the Cabinet from power. 

MP (and former president) Sirisena says Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agreed to a national council and a new prime minister; the prime minister's spokesperson said that had not been communicated yet.

But Sri Lanka's ruling family is refusing to heed the demand for their resignation.

“The political and economic crisis have exposed the multiple failures of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency.”

Under pressure from the people to resign, Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa are scheming separately, each to sink the other to save his own seat.

The united voices of the people must be heard: “Gota Must Go.”

Facing Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis, the Rajapaksa family's appeals to national security and Sinhala Buddhist nationalism may no longer be enough to keep them in power.

The ruling coalition, which commanded a two-thirds majority last month, is now battling for survival.

On Sunday, after large protests, all 26 Cabinet ministers resigned. President Rajapaksa's proposed unity government was refused and protests continue.

Simplistic narratives fail to account for the complexities that have defined foreign policy in Sri Lanka since its independence.

The president’s excessive reliance on the military to govern Sri Lanka has plunged the country in multiple crises.