Sri Lankans blame the president’s administration for the country’s dire economic crisis. President Rajapaksa fled the country as the protests spread.
11:00•Updated 11:25
President of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa has left the country in a military plane with his wife and two bodyguards. The president fled to Malé, the capital of the Maldives, but did not BBC’s (switching to another service) according to the source, he plans to stay there but continue to another country.
A nationwide state of emergency has been declared in Sri Lanka.
Demonstrators invaded the prime minister on Wednesday Ranil Wickremesinghe to the chancellery. They demanded that the prime minister resign immediately.
The removal of the prime minister has already been called for before. On Saturday, protesters broke into his apartment and set it on fire. According to the police, Wickremesinghe was not there at the time.
Wickremesinghe has promised to leave his post after a new, all-party coalition government has been formed in the country. According to Sri Lanka’s constitution, the prime minister becomes acting president for 30 days if the president is unable to perform the duties. However, the protesters want to get rid of their prime minister right away.
Reuters: the prime minister is going to be nominated as a presidential candidate
Both the president and the prime minister already expressed their intention to resign last week. On Wednesday, however, sources in the country’s government told Reuters that the ruling party plans to nominate Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as its presidential candidate.
According to Reuters’ sources, no actual decision has been made on the matter.
The official resignation of the president is expected to take place today, Wednesday. The president, who has now fled the country, was forced to hide inside Sri Lanka for days after his official residence was raided earlier as part of a larger protest.
Sri Lanka is facing the worst economic crisis in decades
Sri Lanka has seen widespread protests in recent days. According to the BBC (you will switch to another service)the police have used tear gas to break up demonstrations near the prime minister’s office. Until now, the protests have been mostly peaceful: people have been singing and giving speeches.
The country is in the worst economic crisis in decades, and citizens blame the administration for it. People have been struggling amid power outages and shortages of fuel, medicine and food for months.