Sri Lankan bishops have urged politicians not to elect the stained politicians to power again as they are already rejected by the people.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL) in a statement on 17 July said rejected leaders should not be entrusted with governance as the country is in an unstable situation politically, economically and socially.
The parliament of the island nation will be voting on July 20 to elect a new president.
“The need of the hour is to form a consensual government for a specific interim period to navigate the country forward in the present crisis,” said the statement from Bishop Harold Anthony Perera and Bishop J.D. Anthony Jayakody, president and secretary general respectively of the conference.
Sri Lanka has for months been in an unprecedented economic crisis that sparked huge protests causing its president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit after fleeing the country.
“This crisis has crippled our motherland totally. What the country needs instantly is to remedy this situation, and to work on short term and long term solutions to put it back on track towards peace and prosperity,” the prelates stated.