With Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa refusing to step down, the protests over the island nation’s worst financial disaster are escalating by the hour. Protesters have taken over the Presidential palace, the Prime Minister’s workplace, the Prime Minister’s house, and the state broadcaster, taking it off the air.
Police and safety personnel haven’t taken any strict measures in opposition to the protesters however are consistently making an attempt to discourage them by firing tear gasoline shells, firing within the air, and conducting air patrolling.
Demonstrators sit round a gathering desk on the workplace of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister as they take over the constructing in Colombo on July 13. (AFP)
Here are the highest developments across the Sri Lankan financial disaster:
1. Fearing for his and his household’s security, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the nation on Wednesday to Male within the Maldives.
2. Soon after Gotabaya’s departure, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe the performing President. However, this infuriated the protesters additional and so they stepped up their demand for a change within the authorities.
Demonstrators contained in the Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s workplace throughout an anti-government protest in Colombo on July 13. (AFP)
3. Protesters might be seen marching to Parliament and scaling the partitions of the PM’s workplace. Efforts by cops to disperse them failed as they finally took over the Prime Minister’s workplace.
4. Following this escalation within the agitation, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency in Sri Lanka and ordered the police to “do everything necessary to restore order”.
5. Amid the chaos, the political battle for supremacy was not absent. While Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa known as the federal government’s actions to this point “total anarchy”, performing President Ranil Wickremesinghe alleged that there was a “fascist threat” to the democracy in Sri Lanka. “We can’t let them tear up our Constitution, ” he said.
6. Meanwhile, protests broke out in the Maldives after the government allegedly “harboured” Rajapaksa. The protesters demanded that Maldives President Ibrahim Solih send Rajapaksa back to Sri Lanka. However, a Maldives government official said that Rajapaksa was only “transiting” there and would soon move on to a new destination.
Demonstrators gather outside the office of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo, demanding his resignation, on July 13. (Reuters)
7. Security was boosted at the Maldives airport on Wednesday night after Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa reportedly sought clearance to fly to Singapore, which is likely to be his final destination. However, he did not fly out on Wednesday and could make a move on Thursday.
8. US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka’s political fraternity to ensure a peaceful transfer of power and called for the rule of law to be upheld in the crisis-hit island nation. India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said it is closely monitoring the situation in the island nation but would not interfere in the country’s affairs.
(2/2) We condemn all violence & name for the rule of regulation to be upheld. A peaceable switch of energy inside SL’s democratic & constitutional framework is important so the folks’s calls for for accountability, transparency, democratic governance & a greater future might be realized.
— Ambassador Julie Chung (@USAmbSL) July 13, 2022
9. Protests will proceed within the tiny island nation on Thursday as neither President Gotabaya Rajapaksa nor Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has stepped down.
10. A brand new President is prone to be elected on July 20, the nominations for which might be filed on July 19.
CLICK HERE FOR THE LIVE UPDATES AROUND THE SRI LANKAN ECONOMIC CRISIS
— ENDS —
