SRI LANKA: Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe has declared a state of emergency in Sri Lanka, according to a late-Sunday official announcement, as his administration seeks to quell social unrest and solve the island nation’s economic challenges.
The notification stated, “It is appropriate to do so in the interests of public security, the protection of public order, and the provision of essential community supplies and services.”
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who went abroad this week to avoid a mass revolt against his administration, has stated that he took “all conceivable precautions” to prevent the economic calamity that has befallen the island nation.
The parliament approved Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation on Friday. A week after hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators stormed his official residence and offices in Colombo, he travelled to the Maldives and then Singapore.
On Saturday, Sri Lanka’s Parliament convened to begin the process of electing a new President, while a petroleum supply arrived to bring some respite to the crisis-stricken nation.
Wickremesinghe, a Rajapaksa MP, is one of the main candidates to become the President, but demonstrators also want him out of office, creating the possibility of fresh turmoil if he is elected. According to a government notice released late on Sunday, Wickremesinghe announced the measure “in the interests of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community,”.
emergency in sri lanka
