Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled to neighboring Maldives on a military jet amid widespread protests over a devastating economic crisis.
The country’s air force confirmed the 73-year-old flew to the Maldives with his wife ahead of the expected resignation.
Rajapaksa had over the weekend promised to resign on Wednesday, July 13, and clear the way for a “peaceful transition of power” after fleeing his official residence in Colombo just before tens of thousands of protesters overran it.
Sri Lankans storm PM Office
Hours later, when no formal announcement of Rajapaksa’s resignation came from the PM office, thousands of Sri Lankans mobbed the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe – who would automatically become acting president in the event of a resignation by the President. The defiant crowd was demanding both officeholders should go.
“Go home Ranil, Go home Gota,” they shouted.
“If (he) doesn’t resign we wouldn’t hand over the buildings we occupied and continue our protest,” protest leader Shabeer Mohamed told media.
“At the meeting with the party leaders yesterday, the opposition parties also agree that the prime minister should go. It is one of our 6 key demands of the ‘aragalaya’,” he added, using the Sinhala word for “struggle” which has been used to describe the protest movement.
State of Emergency declared in the island country
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency as the defiant crowd gathered outside his office where the police and military forces used tear gas to try to disperse protestors.
A spokesperson for the prime minister’s office has said “an islandwide state of emergency has been declared with immediate effect” in Sri Lanka.
According to the prime minister’s spokesman Dinouk Colombage the officials declared a nationwide state of emergency “to deal with the situation in the country.”
President Rajapaksa’s resignation
As per the reports, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is not expected to resign until after he reaches his final destination. After moving out of country, the Sri Lankan president now enjoys immunity from arrest. It is believed that he wanted to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained.
On July 9, thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo broke through police barricades and stormed the president’s official residence, demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa amid the worsening economic and political crisis in the island nation.