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Sri Lanka President vows to finish term, won't run for re-election

"I can't go as a failed president," Rajapaksa said Monday in a wide-ranging interview at his official residence in Colombo, his first with a foreign media organization

Gotabaya Rajapaksa (Photo: Bloomberg)
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Gotabaya Rajapaksa (Photo: Bloomberg)

Anusha Ondaatjie and Sudhi Ranjan Sen | Bloomberg
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa vowed to finish the remaining two years in his term despite monthslong street protests calling for his ouster, but won’t stand for re-election as he focuses on fixing a financial mess that tipped Sri Lanka into its worst-ever economic crisis.

“I can’t go as a failed president,” Rajapaksa said Monday in a wide-ranging interview at his official residence in Colombo, his first with a foreign media organization since the crisis unfolded. “I have been given a mandate for five years. I will not contest again.”

The defiance comes in the face of slogans of “Gota Go Home,”