Sri Lanka s ruling party asked the country s new president to provide security and other assistance for his predecessor who fled to south-east Asia last month after protests erupted amid a crippling economic crisis.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa flew to Singapore last month and quit as Sri Lanka's president, giving way for veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe to win a vote in parliament and take the top job.
Rajapaksa is currently in Thailand for a temporary stay after being accused of mishandling the island nation's economy, leading to its worst financial crisis in seven decades.
Sagara Kariyawasam, general secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, said on Thursday that his party approached Wickremesinghe for help in securing Rajapaksa's return.
"We asked the president to provide the necessary security and facilities for former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to return to the country," Kariyawasam said. The date of his return is not finalised. A former ambassador said on Wednesday that Rajapaksa would return home next week, and local news agency Newsfirst said on Wednesday.
In an interview with Reuters earlier in the day, Wickremesinghe said he was not aware of any plans for the former president's return.
Rajapaksa, a former military officer who took office after winning a landslide majority in 2019, is the first Sri Lankan president to quit mid-term.
His resignation came after thousands of people stormed the presidential residence and office in Colombo's commercial capital in early July after widespread protests in the country of 22 million people.