Sri Lanka down to one-day supply of gasoline, prime minister says
NBCSep 09, 2022
Sri Lanka: Parliament Reconvenes as PM Warns of Hardship
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Image copyright: Reuters [via Al Jazeera]
The Facts
Sri Lanka's parliament reconvened this week for a four-day session that began with the ruling party's candidate, Ajith Rajapakse, appointed as deputy speaker after winning 109 votes in a secret ballot - compared to 78 for the opposition's nominee.
This comes a day after Sri Lanka's new PM announced that the crisis-plagued nation was down to its last day of gasoline, amid anti-government protests that saw nine people killed and 300 injured last week.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Former PM Mahinda Rajapaksa was a beloved figure who has devoted his entire adult life to public service; he just wasn't equipped to handle Sri Lanka's unprecedented economic turmoil. With his resignation, Pres. Gotabaya Rajapaksa can bring new blood into his administration in the form of Wickremesinghe to solve this crisis.
Establishment-critical narrative
Wickremesinghe is not the band-aid that Pres. Gotabaya Rajapaksa thinks he will be. Sri Lankans see him as just another connected and corrupt career politician being brought in to replace Mahinda without challenging Rajapaksa's control. The move will not quell the anger of anti-government protests.
