Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been named interim president as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees abroad, the Speaker of the House announced today.
“Due to his absence from the country, President Rajapaksa told me that he has charged the prime minister to act as president, as provided for in the Constitution,” Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a short televised address.
President Rajapaksa, who had promised he would step down today, arrived in the Maldives after fleeing the country but has yet to formalize his withdrawal.
The Constitution provides, in the event of the resignation of the president, that the prime minister temporarily assumes the presidential duties until the election by the Parliament of a deputy who will exercise power until the end of the current term, i.e. in November 2024.
Wickremesinghe himself is challenged by the protesters who have been mobilizing for three months. Police today used tear gas in an attempt to prevent the crowd from storming his official residence.
A curfew has been imposed in the province of the capital Colombo and the government has declared a state of emergency.
Wickremesinghe, who was appointed in May to lead the country out of the worst economic crisis in its history, has himself vowed to step down if a government of national unity is formed.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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