Sri Lanka Imposes Curfew, Acting President Ranil Asks Speaker to Nominate New PM Acceptable to All | Key Points

Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is now Acting President, has declared a state of emergency earlier in the day.

Sri Lanka Economic Crisis Latest Update: Hours after declaring a state of emergency, Sri Lanka’s Acting President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday imposed nationwide curfew till 5 AM on Thursday. The move has been taken in the wake of rising protests across the nation in recent days.

Wickremesinghe urges Speaker to nominate PM acceptable to all

In a late-evening development, Ranil Wickremesinghe asked Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to nominate a Prime Minister who is acceptable to both the government and the Opposition.

Issuing a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe held a meeting with the Members of the Cabinet at his office on Monday. The ministers who participated in this meeting were of the opinion that as soon as there is an agreement to form an all-party government, they will hand over the responsibilities to that government.

However, Wickremesinghe is under pressure to quit before the expected resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is said to be flying from the Maldives to Singapore.

Protesters storm Wickremesinghe’s office

The protesters who stormed Wickremesinghe’s office earlier in the day attempted to enter the parliament compound at the time of reporting. The police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters near the official residence of the speaker, police said.

A 26-year-old protester had died of breathing difficulties after being admitted to hospital. He was part of the group that stormed the prime minister’s office this morning where 35 others had also been injured.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees to Maldives

Earlier in the day, President Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives from where he appointed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as the acting President, escalating the political crisis and triggering a fresh wave of protests in the country reeling under the worst financial crisis in decades.

Wickremesinghe, who is now Acting President, has declared a state of emergency in the country and a curfew in the Western province has been imposed as protesters gathered near his office at Flower Road in Colombo.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe last week said Sri Lanka is now a bankrupt country.