Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa refused to leave on Saturday after his media minister and party officials backed protesters calling for his resignation amid the worsening economic crisis.
Mahinda Rajapaksa invoked the support of “a majority of parliamentarians” even if “there may be a minority who want me to leave”.
“The people must be patient to overcome the crisis,” the 76-year-old head of government told the radio. He added that “there could be no interim coalition government without me as Prime Minister”.
Media Minister Nalaka Godahewa on Saturday announced his support for the thousands of people who have been camping for more than three weeks outside the office of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to demand his resignation and that of his older brother and prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948 with shortages of fuel, food and other basic necessities.
The president appointed a new government on Monday, from which two of his brothers and a nephew have been dismissed but retaining the head of the family, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Mr. Godahewa, hitherto loyal to the Rajapaksa clan, said on Saturday that the head of state should get rid of the prime minister and authorize an interim government bringing together all parties.
“We need to restore political stability to successfully deal with the economic crisis,” Mr. Godahewa wrote on his Facebook page. “The whole government, including the prime minister, should step down and (there should be) an interim government that can win everyone’s trust.”
According to him, the government lost what remained of its credibility with the death on Tuesday of a demonstrator killed by the police. Mr. Godahewa claims to have immediately submitted his resignation, refused by the president.
Other senior ruling party officials, including former government spokesman Dullas Alahapperuma, have also called for the head of government to resign.
“I urge the president to appoint a smaller cabinet with genuine consensus representing all parties in parliament for up to one year,” Alahapperuma said on Saturday.
The police and the army squared the city of Rambukkana, in the center of the country, on Saturday, before the burial at nightfall, in the presence of Buddhist monks, of Chaminda Lakshan, 42, shot dead during a demonstration against rising fuel prices, suppressed by the police.
Law enforcement claimed they opened fire, killing Lakshan, after a 28-year-old protester tried to set a tanker truck on fire. The young man was arrested.
Food, fuel and electricity have been rationed for several months in this country which is experiencing record inflation. Hospitals lack essential drugs.
Finance Minister Ali Sabry, currently in Washington to negotiate a loan from the International Monetary Fund, warned on Friday that the economic situation could worsen further.
“It will get worse before it gets better,” Sabry told reporters. “The next few years will be painful.”