Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, as the Acting President, has ordered to impose curfew in the Western Province with immediate effect and to impose emergency law island-wide after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife fled to the Maldives hours before he was due to resign. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has become acting president.
Rajapaksa has authorized the prime minister to carry out presidential duties, the speaker of parliament said on Wednesday after the president left the country.
Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said Rajapaksa had approved Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe acting as president, invoking a section of the constitution dealing with times when the president is unable to fulfill his duties, media outlets reported.
Protesters stormed the Sri Lankan prime minister’s office after the president fled the country only hours before he was to step down amid a devastating economic crisis that has triggered severe shortages of food and fuel.
Protesters are demanding that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe step down immediately. He said he would leave once a new government was in place.
In order to ensure law and order during the interim between the President’s departure and the election of a new President, General Shavendra Silva, the Chief of Defence Staff, appealed to all citizens.
He made a specific appeal, pleading with people not to damage either public or private property.
He claimed that they asked the Speaker to call a conference of party leaders and tell the security forces of the political measures to be implemented in the wake of the President’s resignation.
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