Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa announced Thursday that opposition parties have united over growing concerns about Sri Lanka’s economy and formally requested President Anura Kumara Dissanayake convene an All Party Conference to develop urgent national solutions.
“Today, the Opposition came together in unity because the country is once again staring at a dangerous economic warning sign,” Premadasa said in a statement, pointing to rising cost pressures and rupee volatility.
Premadasa said the developments require an urgent national response and should not be viewed as a partisan issue. He said the call for an APC is aimed at finding collective national responses “before the situation escalates further.”
The cross-party unity announcement marks the strongest formal mechanism the opposition can deploy short of a parliamentary motion. It comes amid weeks of growing political debate over the foreign exchange market and the weakening Sri Lankan rupee, which crossed Rs 352.50 in TT selling on Wednesday.
The APC call completes a three-pronged opposition escalation on Thursday. Earlier in the day, SJB MP Harsha de Silva told Parliament the foreign exchange market is effectively frozen with the Central Bank as the only counterparty, and later warned of a possible 50-100 basis point CBSL rate hike next week. Premadasa himself separately urged the government to begin negotiating a successor IMF programme now.
The government has pushed back firmly. Deputy Finance Minister Anil Jayantha Fernando told Parliament the rupee slide does not signal a crisis, and IMF mission chief Evan Papageorgiou said Sri Lanka’s policy framework today is considerably stronger than in the past ahead of the May 27 Executive Board review.
No date has been set for the APC. The Presidential Secretariat has yet to respond to the request.
