Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been appointed acting president after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives earlier today, the Hindustan Times reported.
Parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana announced the appointment with immediate effect as thousands of protesters demanded the two political figures to step down.
“Due to his absence in the country, Rajapaksa informed me that he has appointed the prime minister (Wickremesinghe) to act as president in accordance with the constitution,” Abeywardana said in a brief statement broadcasted on television.
Wickremesinghe’s first directive as the acting President of Sri Lanka was to declare a nationwide state of emergency and a curfew in the country’s western provinces.
“The prime minister as acting president has also declared a state of emergency across the country and imposed a curfew in the western provinces,” said Wickremesinghe media secretary Dinouk Colombage.
The curfew is effective immediately.
How did Sri Lanka get here?
The unrest may surprise some, but to others, especially the people of Sri Lanka, this can no longer wait.
Economic turmoil has plagued the island nation for months. Sri Lankans have suffered lengthy blackouts, acute food and fuel shortages, and increasing inflation in its most painful economic downturn in the nation’s history.
According to Al Jazeera, protesters have demanded the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for months.
They blame his government for their chronic mismanagement of the country’s finances.
Then, four days ago, on Saturday, protesters decided that they had enough.
They stormed the official residences and private homes of the Sri Lankan prime minister, president and other government officials.
After turning the president’s house upside down, they set it on fire. This eventually forced Rajapaksa to voluntarily offer to step down on July 13.
Moving forward
Although PM Ranil Wickremesinghe is now the country’s acting president, protesters are still unhappy as they want to see the PM go too.
He is “not a popular man at all among the protesters because they say he is involved. He has been supporting the Rajapaksa family; he’s been involved in all their misdeeds and mismanagement that have been happening in the last couple of months, says newsman Step Vaessen of Al Jazeera.
We hope justice will prevail in Sri Lanka with minimal casualties.
WATCH: Sri Lankan Protesters Storm Gov’t Officials’ Homes & Set The Houses On Fire
