Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will be addressing the nation on Monday evening, according to a media report, amidst the growing pressure on him to quit following the unprecedented economic crisis facing the island nation.
The Prime Minister’s speech will come at a time when the nation is rocked by massive anti-government protests over weeks of lengthy power outages and shortage of gas, food and other essentials, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.
Mahinda Rajapaksa will issue a special statement today evening, the report said.
The anti-government protests, which started on Saturday, continued to its third day on Monday.
Meanwhile, efforts to establish an all-party interim government also remained inconclusive as the talks between President Gotabaya Rajapaka and the group of independent MPs from his own ruling SLPP coalition failed to make progress on Sunday.
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The gathering calling for the Rajapaksa family's resignation has continued their all night vigil.
Last week the entire Sri Lankan cabinet resigned apart from Mahinda Rajapaksa at a time when the country was facing its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from the UK in 1948.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, continue to hold power in Sri Lanka, despite their politically powerful family being the focus of public ire.
The President has defended his government's actions, saying the foreign exchange crisis was not his making and the economic downturn was largely pandemic driven with the island nation’s tourism revenue and inward remittances waning.
