Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Raja Paksha has left the country amid severe economic crisis and protests, while government sources have confirmed his arrival in the Maldives.
Reuters news agency quoted sources as saying that he had decided to resign a few hours before leaving the country.
Immigration officials told Reuters that Raja Paksha left the country on an Air Force plane with his wife and two bodyguards.
Key government sources and a close ally of Raja Paksha say he is currently in the Maldivian capital, Mail.
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Government sources say it is more likely that Raja Paksha will move from there to another Asian country.
According to immigration officials, they could not stop the president from leaving the country under the law.
Raja Picasa decided to resign after thousands of protesters stormed the Prime Minister's House last week.
According to the report, the president had not been seen anywhere in the country since Friday.
Sources close to the Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abe Wardana, have said that he has not yet contacted Raja Paksha, while sources close to Raja Paksha say that he had tendered his resignation to the Speaker on Wednesday.
Similarly, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has also offered to resign, after the Sri Lankan constitution, in which case the speaker will be made acting president until a new president is elected.
Earlier, Abe Vardana had said that a session of parliament would be convened on Friday and the election of a new president would be carried out.
Raja Paksha's family, to which Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa also belongs, has dominated the country's politics for years and a large number of Sri Lankans blame him for the current problems.
It is believed that rumors of Gotabaya Raja Paksha leaving the country had been circulating since Tuesday night.
According to AFP, a Sri Lankan defense official said the 73-year-old president had been transferred to a safe place under the Sri Lankan navy after protesters stormed the presidential palace.
On the other hand, after the recent protests, the Speaker of Parliament had assured that President Raja Paksha would resign on July 13 to form an all-party interim government.
A senior government official said Raja Paksha and his crew had been airlifted to Catania Air Base, some distance from the capital Colombo, on Monday, from where they were flown back to the capital by two helicopters.
Earlier, rumors were circulating that he would be deported to Dubai.
According to airport staff, there have been four recent flights to the Middle East, but none of them included President Raja Paksha or his crew.
President Raja Paksha has not been seen in public since Friday and has not made any direct statement on his resignation. I don't know yet.
