Ranil Wickremesinghe, the country’s new leader, has officially asked lawmakers to join an all-party unity government that will enact difficult changes in an effort to rescue the nation’s failing economy, his office announced on Sunday.
Wickremesinghe assumed power earlier this month after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to leave the country and resign due to public outrage over the island nation’s greatest economic crisis.
Wickremesinghe discussed his ideas at a meeting with the powerful monks of the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, one of Buddhism’s holiest sites, on Saturday.
“As the president, I wish to start a new journey,” Wickremesinghe was quoted as telling the monks in his first meeting with the powerful Buddhist clergy since taking office.
“I would like to get all the parties together and go on that journey as well as to form an all-party government.”
He has written to all lawmakers asking them to join a unity government.
After Mahinda Rajapaksa, the senior Rajapaksa brother, resigned and no one else shown interest in the position, Wickremesinghe, a former opposition MP, assumed the position of premier for a sixth time in May.
Following Gotabaya’s departure on July 9 when tens of thousands of demonstrators enraged by the economic crisis stormed the presidential palace, Wickremesinghe was elected president.
He escaped to Singapore, where he gave his resignation five days later. Wickremesinghe then took over as acting president and was later elected by parliament to officially assume the presidency.
The 22 million residents of Sri Lanka have been subjected to months-long power outages, record inflation, and shortages of food, gasoline, and medications.
The nation hasn’t had enough foreign currency to pay for even the most basic imports since late last year.
