Sri Lanka: Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe says previous government was “covering up facts” about financial crisis
“I want to tell people I know what they are going through,” he added. “We’re back. We have to pick ourselves up from the ground up. We don’t need 5 years or 10 years. At the end of next year let’s start to settle down and be sure in 2024, let’s go. have an economy that works and will start to grow.”
Wickremesinghe added that he has been talking to Rajapaksa since he first fled Sri Lanka for the Maldives, and then traveled to Singapore. However, Wickremesinghe said he did not know if the former leader was still in Singapore or elsewhere.
Wickremesinghe is currently vying to be the next president of Sri Lanka, with parliament due to elect a new leader on Wednesday.
The six-term former prime minister, who is being supported by Sri Lanka’s ruling political party Podujana Peramuna, will face at least three other candidates.
But Wickremesinghe’s nomination threatened to inflame an already unstable situation in the South Asian nation of 22 million people.
Since March, Sri Lanka has been brought to its knees by a growing economic crisis that has left the country struggling to buy essential imports, including fuel, food and medicine.
Protesters have taken to the streets to demand the country’s leaders step down and last week appeared to have scored a victory when Rajapaksa announced his resignation, then fled the country after thousands of protesters stormed the streets. into his residence, and some swam in his swimming pool. Wickremesinghe’s private residence was set on fire by angry protesters shortly afterwards.
Wickremesinghe – prime minister before Rajapaksa stepped down – has vowed to step down to make way for a unity government.
He told CNN that his burned-out house and much of it inside could not be salvaged.
Wickremesinghe says he has lost more than 4,000 books, some of which are centuries old. A 125-year-old piano, he added, was also destroyed in the fire.
But despite this, on Monday, he reiterated his desire to compete for the top spot, telling CNN he is “not the same administration.”
“I’m not the same, everyone knows that,” he said. “I came here to handle the economy.”
When asked why he wanted to be president and made himself a further potential target, Wickremesinghe said: “I don’t want this to happen in the country. What happened to me, I don’t want anyone else to have to. suffering… I certainly don’t.” I don’t want that to happen to anyone else. ”
Meanwhile, Sri Lankans’ lives remain chaotic as they face the country’s crippling crisis.
People continued to queue outside gas stations for hours – even days – in desperate hope of buying fuel. Many local businesses are closed and supermarket shelves are increasingly barren.
As anger continues to grow, Wickremesinghe says people can protest “peacefully.”
“Do not hinder MPs and parliaments from carrying out their duties,” he said.
Wickremesinghe has declared a nationwide state of emergency since Monday, in an attempt to quell any possible social unrest ahead of a parliamentary presidential vote on July 20.
“We are trying to prevent (police and military) from using weapons,” Wickremesinghe said. “They’ve been attacked a number of times but we still tell them to do their best not to use weapons.”
But Wickremesinghe says he can “understand what (the people of Sri Lanka) are going through.”
“I told them it had been three bad weeks… And the whole system was down,” he said. “We won’t have gas, we won’t have diesel. That’s bad.”
Wickremesinghe said he would not let protesters block parliament from voting on Wednesday, or allow more buildings to be stormed.
“There must be law and order in the country,” he said.
CNN’s Hannah Ritchie and Wayne Chang contributed reporting.
