Protesters defied police repression and the state of siege on Wednesday and stormed the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe after he was declared president.hours after the flight of the president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Maldives.
The protesters demand that the prime minister resign at the same time as Rajapaksa, who had promised to do so on Wednesday, cornered by the worst economic and political crisis in the history of this island of 22 million inhabitants located to the south of India.
The prime minister and new interim president was appointed by Rajapaksa under article 37.1 of the Sri Lankan Constitution, which provides that in case of illness, absence from the country and other reasons that prevent him from exercising his powers, the president can appoint the prime minister for the position during this period of time.
The government response
Once in his position as interim president, as announced by Parliament, Wickremesinghe went on the air on national radio and television and asked the Army and the Police to do “whatever is necessary to restore order.”. He further added that the protesters “They want to prevent me from fulfilling my responsibilities as president. We cannot allow the fascists to take control”.
This same Wednesday, a young 26-year-old protester died after being injured during the protests in front of the prime minister’s office in the city of Colombo, where security forces used tear gas. The protester had been transferred to a hospital in the area for respiratory problems, dying shortly after, according to information from the newspaper ‘Daily Mirror’.
The opposition has a tragic look
Sri Lankan opposition leader Sajit Premadasa called the Prime Minister’s appointment as interim president a “tragedy” on Wednesday.while denouncing that Wickremesinghe does not have the authority to declare a state of emergency and declare a curfew.
The opponent further stated that “a prime minister becomes acting president only if the president appoints him as such, his post is vacant, or the chief justice of the Supreme Court, after consultation with the speaker of parliament, considers that the president is incapable of perform their duties”. “In the absence of all that, the prime minister cannot exercise the powers of the president and cannot declare a curfew or a state of emergency,” he added.
Rajapaksa’s escape
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 73, left Sri Lanka early Wednesday on a military plane and arrived in the Maldives with his wife and a bodyguard. aboard an Antonov-32 aircraft that took off from the main international airport. After thousands of protesters stormed his official residence on Saturday, Rajapaksa vowed that he would step down as early as Wednesday and that he would pave the way for a “peaceful transition” of power.
Fittingly, Rajapaksa benefits from presidential immunity and can use it to seek refuge abroad and not be detained at home.. A source at Male airport confirmed to AFP the arrival of the president, who was transferred to an undisclosed location after landing in the Maldives.