Sri Lanka's opposition rejects President invite to join 'unity govt'

Colombo, April 4

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Sri Lanka’s opposition parties on Monday rejected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s invitation to join the proposed “unity government” as a “sham” after he fired his brother and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa from his post, as protests were held nationwide over the ruling Rajapaksa family’s poor handling of the country’s worst economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday fired Basil Rajapaksa and invited the Opposition parties to join a ‘unity Cabinet’. On Sunday night, 26 Cabinet ministers resigned after thousands of people defied the curfew and joined street protests.

United People’s Force leader Sajith Premadasa said he wished to see a political model that worked. “A new Sri Lanka will begin with stronger institutions and not just a change in leadership. An interim government is nothing but internal party politics,” he tweeted.

Mano Ganesan, a Tamil leader from the Opposition, said his party Tamil People’s Alliance and main Muslim party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress would also not join the unity government. —