Sri Lanka's embattled leader dropped two of his brothers and a nephew from his cabinet Monday, acknowledging public anger over the ruling family's mismanagement of a crippling economic crisis that has prompted calls for his resignation.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has presided over the island nation's most painful downturn in memory and his government is preparing for imminent bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.
"People are suffering because of the economic crisis and I deeply regret it," the president said in an address to his new cabinet, conceding that Sri Lanka should have gone to the IMF"much earlier". Mahinda's eldest son Namal, who ran the sports ministry and had been touted as a future leader before the crisis, was also dropped.The 21-member cabinet is seven people fewer than its predecessor, which resigned en masse two weeks ago in response to public outrage over nepotism and corruption.
New finance minister Ali Sabry led a delegation to Washington over the weekend to open talks with the International Monetary Fund from Tuesday, officials said. Lanka IOC, a petrol retailer which accounts for a third of the local market, announced yet another steep hike in fuel costs on Monday to account for the collapse in value of the local currency.
Rajapaksa's parliamentary majority has been thrown into question after former allies deserted the ruling coalition.
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