Lankan Prez Gotabaya Rajapaksa calls for 'pro-people struggle'

Colombo, May 1

Sri Lanka’s beleaguered President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Sunday urged all political parties to set aside their differences and appealed to the protesting citizens to join hands to steer a “pro-people struggle”, amid growing demand for his government’s immediate resignation over its failure to tackle the country’s worst economic crisis.

His message to the people on International Workers’ Day came a day after the powerful Buddhist clergy in the island nation warned that people would be influenced to reject all politicians if Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya’s elder brother, did not resign to make way for an interim government to resolve the political and economic crisis in the country.