According to the country's news website Newswire, this week, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will pick a new prime minister and cabinet.

On Monday, Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned from his position as prime minister amidst protests over the island nation's unparalleled economic catastrophe. He submitted his resignation to his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

In a televised message to Sri Lankan residents on Wednesday evening, Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated that if the situation in the island nation stabilizes, he is willing to eliminate the executive presidency.

The executive presidency in Sri Lanka is a system that grants the president broad decision-making authority over various elements of government. The arrangement allows the president to hold Cabinet seats and bypass the Cabinet when making decisions. One of the demands of protestors and opposition parties in the country has been to eliminate the system.

According to Newswire, Rajapaksa made the statement on Wednesday after meeting with the opposition leader and former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Roar LK reported earlier that the opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya has agreed to create an interim administration under four conditions. The party stated that Rajapaksa should retire as president within a specified time frame and refrain from interfering with government operations.

The SJB also requested the abolition of the executive presidency and the holding of elections once economic stability had been achieved.

Hundreds of protestors have been holding demonstrations in Sri Lanka since the beginning of the month, as the island nation has experienced its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948. Sri Lankans are experiencing shortages of medicines, milk powder, cooking gas, kerosene, and other critical products due to the depletion of the country's foreign currency reserves.

Hours after Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as prime minister, eight people were killed, and more than 200 were injured in protests against the government's handling of the economic crisis on Monday.

Twenty years ago, the Rajapaksa family ruled Sri Lankan politics. Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa are politicians of the third generation.

Protesters have demanded the resignations of the president and the previous prime minister, whom they hold responsible for the catastrophe.

To "ensure public order," Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced a state of emergency for the second time in less than a month on May 7.

On April 1, the Sri Lankan government proclaimed a state of emergency, granting Rajapaksa broad authority to jail demonstrators and seize property. The president repealed the state of emergency on April 5, hours after his ruling coalition lost the majority in Parliament.