Hours after former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to Maldives, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken over as acting president of the island nation.
“The prime minister as acting president has declared a state of emergency (countrywide) and imposed a curfew in the western province,” Wickremesinghe’s media secretary, Dinouk Colombage, told Reuters. The curfew has been imposed with immediate effect.
Protests across the country have continued unabated and agitators are now demanding Wickremesinghe resign. The Sri Lankan PM’s residence was stormed with protestors braving tear gas shells.
Earlier in the day, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to Maldives where he Maldivian speaker Mohamed Nasheed received him. The strongman finally yielded to calls for his resignation from the post of President and has agreed to resign today.
According to the Hindustan Times, protests against the Rajapaksas have continued for months and intensified last weekend when thousands of protesters stormed the presidential palace and the prime minister’s residence. The protesters have blamed the Rajapaksa family for the economic crisis in the country which has left the citizens struggling for fuel, food and medicines.
According to a senior police official, an indefinite curfew has been imposed across the Western Province, which includes Colombo, “to contain the situation”. Wickremesinghe has himself announced his willingness to resign if consensus is reached on forming a unity government.
The Prime Minister’s confirmed on Wednesday that Rajapaksa had left the country, but added that it had no schedule or timetable for any resignation announcement.
According to Reuters, the presidential succession process could take between three days — the minimum time needed for parliament to elect an MP to serve out Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in November 2024 — and a maximum of 30 days allowed under the statute.
