Sri Lanka needs a new government to tackle its economic crisis, according to the leader of the main opposition party, as its prime minister proposed a system to make the nation’s president and cabinet more accountable.
“It’s time for a mandate, a fresh mandate,” Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya party said in a Bloomberg interview. “People don’t want elections, they want solutions. But at the end of the day to resolve this gridlock, I think a fresh mandate is the only answer.”
The South Asian island nation has been in the worst economic tailspin of its independent history, with shortages of everything from fuel to medicine, power outages and inflation seen rising to 40% prompting angry protests and turning into political risk for the ruling Rajapaksa family.
