Ranil Wickremesinghe is also challenged by protesters who have been mobilizing for three months.
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In the midst of a crisis, Sri Lanka changes heads of state. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been named interim president after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled abroad, it was announced on Wednesday (July 13th). the speaker of parliament.
“Due to his absence from the country, President Rajapaksa told me that he had appointed the Prime Minister to act as President, in accordance with the constitution”said the Speaker of Parliament in a brief televised address.
President Rajapaksa, who promised to step down on Wednesday, 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 assumes the interim until the election by Parliament of a deputy who will exercise power until the end of the current mandate, that is to say i.e. November 2024.
Ranil Wickremesinghe is also challenged by protesters who have been mobilizing for three months. Police used tear gas on Wednesday to prevent the crowd from invading his official residence. A curfew has been imposed in the capital province Colombo and the government has declared a state of emergency.
The former Prime Minister, who was appointed in May to pull the country out of the worst economic crisis in its history, has himself pledged to step down if a government of national unity is formed.