• Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his resignation via email on Thursday. 
• Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives earlier in the week and landed in Singapore on Thursday. 
• The authenticity of the resignation email will have to be verified, according to a parliamentary spokesperson. 

Sri Lanka’s president submitted his resignation on Thursday shortly after reaching Singapore, the parliamentary speaker’s office said, days after the head of state fled protests triggered by his country’s worst-ever economic crisis.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned by email, the speaker’s spokesperson said. 

Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives on Wednesday, and left from there for Singapore a day later.

“The authenticity and the legality of the e-mail will have to be checked out” before being formally accepted, Indunil Yapa told AFP, adding that a formal announcement was expected on Friday.

Rajapaksa would be the first president to resign since Sri Lanka adopted a presidential system of government in 1978.

As president, Rajapaksa enjoyed immunity from arrest, and he is believed to have wanted to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained.

Under Sri Lanka’s constitution, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose resignation is also being demanded by protesters, would automatically become acting president until parliament can appoint a successor.

Rajapaksa, his wife Ioma and their two bodyguards arrived in Singapore from Male on board a Saudia airline flight.

Singapore’s foreign ministry confirmed Rajapaksa had been allowed to enter the city-state for a “private visit”, adding: “He has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum.”

A handful of Sri Lankans were waiting in one of the airport’s arrival areas to voice their anger at Rajapaksa and the economic crisis engulfing their homeland.

“I want to scold him with all the words that I know,” said a Sri Lankan design engineer working in Singapore, who identified himself only as Max.

“He’s responsible for everything that happened in our country,” he told AFP.

Singaporean authorities were quick to warn against protests, as it is illegal for even one person to stage a demonstration without prior official permission in the tightly-controlled territory.

Rajapaksa is expected to look to stay in the city-state for some time, according to Sri Lankan security sources, before potentially moving to the United Arab Emirates.

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In Colombo, demonstrators left several of the emblematic state buildings they had overrun in recent days, after Wickremesinghe instructed security forces to restore order and declared a state of emergency.

“We are peacefully withdrawing from the Presidential Palace, the Presidential Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office with immediate effect, but will continue our struggle,” a spokesperson for the protesters said.

Rajapaksa is accused of mismanaging the economy to a point where the country has run out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, leading to severe hardships for its 22 million people, with four out of five Sri Lankans skipping meals.

The island has nearly exhausted its already scarce supplies of petrol, with the government ordering the closure of non-essential offices and schools to reduce commuting and save fuel.