Colombo, May 9 (Agency) The second son and Chief of Staff of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Yoshitha Rajapaksa and his wife left the country in the early hours of Monday, even as violence spiralled amid the political uncertainty in the island nation. According to Daily Mirror, Yoshitha and his wife left for Singapore. Yoshitha’s exit from the country comes on very crucial day as his father, the Prime Minister is expected to announce a decision on whether he will step down from the Premiership on Monday evening. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to attend the cabinet meeting on Monday evening and is likely to thereafter announce a decision after the President had informed him to step down. Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa has decided not to accept the Prime Minister’s post in an interim government, his party, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) National Organizer Tissa Attsnayake said.
“Mr. Premadasa will not accept premiership of an interim government but SJB will give conditional support for an interim government,” Attanayake said “We will only support an interim government which will carry out proposals made by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka,” he added. On Monday, thousands of Mahinda’s supporters gathered at Temple Trees urging Mahinda Rajapaksa to stay on. A tense situation has prevailed near Temple Trees as a group of supporters of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have attacked the protesters asking for the Premier to quit. Another report said that former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya is being nominated as the Premier of the proposed ‘National Unity Interim Government’ and that the proposal has been positively responded to by the Ruling Party. Jayasuriya, who has been continuing his political journey without being submitted to party politics, is expected to assume office as the Premier of the proposed National Unity Interim Government on the prime condition of abolishing the executive presidency.