Colombo: Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has informed that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been appointed as Acting President after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives. Soon after taking over as the acting President, Ranil Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency as protests continued across the country. Mr. Wickremasinghe also imposed a Curfew in the Western Province with immediate effect.
This was in response to the continued protests at various protest sites across Sri Lanka. Four persons were hospitalized with injuries following a clash at the Go Home Gota protest site at Galle Face Green early this morning. Police used tear gas to disperse a group of protesters near the Prime Minister’s office in Flower Road in Colombo earlier in the morning. At least 10 persons who were occupying Temple Trees, the official residence of the Prime Minister, were also injured in a clash yesterday. However, Mr. Wickremesinghe is yet to respond to the demands of the citizens of Sri Lanka.
As Sri Lanka waited for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign as promised, agency sources reported that he had fled the country in the middle of the night, flying to the Maldives in a military aircraft. Mr. Rajapaksa left the presidential palace moments before thousands of anti-government protesters stormed the place to protest against the handling of the economic crisis.
The 96-day-long Go Home Gota protests saw hundreds of thousands of people descend on Colombo. After initially clashing with police, protesters occupied key government buildings and residences, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his prime minister to promise to step down. The movement had begun in March when thousands took to the streets to vent their anger at lengthy power cuts and spiraling prices. The protests called for the Rajapaksa family that had dominated the country’s politics for much of the last 20 years, to leave power. Public frustration at shortages of food, fuel, and medicines, which had brought the economy to a standstill, and the president’s stubborn refusal to step aside, had been simmering for weeks.
Meanwhile, Protestors have breached the gates to the prime minister’s office and are flooding the grounds, According to media reports. BBC reports that the grounds are now completely overrun with joyous protesters, with crowds climbing on anything and everything they are able to get their hands on.
Many are standing on balconies screaming with jubilation, after an hours-long standoff with armed police officers outside the gates of the compound.
On other hand, the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) and Independent Television Network (ITN) have suspended their live and recorded telecasts as the corporation premises is being surrounded by protesters.
Officials say engineers shut the channel down as throngs of protesters entered the state television office.
The economic crisis in the island-state of Sri Lanka that started in 2019, is the country’s worst-ever since its independence in 1948. The crisis saw unprecedented levels of inflation, near-depletion of foreign exchange reserves, shortages of medical supplies, and an increase in prices of basic commodities.
The crisis is said to have begun due to multiple compounding factors like external debt, a nationwide policy to shift to organic or biological farming, tax cuts, Easter bombings in 2019, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.