Sri Lanka president flees, but protesters vow to resist if PM remains a power broker

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country Wednesday amid a popular uprising brought on by an economic collapse, bringing to an apparent end his family's near two-decade dominance of the country.

But his decision to leave his ally Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in charge as acting president triggered more demonstrations, with protesters storming his office demanding that he go, too.

Wickremesinghe's office declared a state of emergency and a curfew with immediate effect, but then cancelled them. His office said the moves could be announced again later.

"Protesters have no reason to storm the prime minister's office," Wickremesinghe said in a statement. "They want to stop the parliamentary process. But we must respect the constitution. So security forces have advised me to impose an emergency and a curfew. I'm working to do that."

Protesters want PM out, too

Police stationed outside the prime minister's office fired several rounds of tear gas and a military helicopter briefly circled overhead, but protesters appeared undeterred and finally surged into the compound. Wickremesinghe's team declined to reveal his whereabouts.

"No matter what, everyone in this crowd will be here until Ranil also steps down," said college student Sanchuka Kavinda, 25, standing next to a mangled, open gate of the prime minister's office. 

WATCH | Sri Lankan diaspora in Canada watches Colombo events with concern, anger:

Sri Lankan students in Canada voice support for Colombo protesters

2 years ago

Duration 3:50

Sri Lankan university students Manoj Kaushalya Rathnayake in Fredericton, Shenaly Kuluppuarachchi in Winnipeg and Subitha Tharmakulasagaram in Montreal say they stand with protesters in their home country’s capital of Colombo calling for political reform amid economic turmoil.

Parliament is expected to name a new full-time president next week, and a top ruling party source told Reuters Wickremesinghe was the party's first choice, although no decision had been taken.

An attempt by Wickremesinghe to cling on would infuriate the protesters who say he is a close ally of the Rajapaksa family, which has dominated the country since Rajapaksa's older brother Mahinda became president in 2005.

"An MP with one seat is appointed as PM. Now the same person is appointed as acting President," the opposition presidential nominee, Sajith Premadasa, said on Twitter. "This is the Rajapaksa style of democracy. What a farce. What a tragedy."

The parliament speaker, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, said Rajapaksa had phoned him and told him his resignation letter would arrive later on Wednesday. He appealed to the public to be peaceful and "have confidence in the parliamentary process."

Protests against the economic crisis have simmered for months and came to a head last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people took over key government buildings in Colombo, blaming the Rajapaksas and their allies for runaway inflation, corruption and a severe lack of fuel and medicines.

'Both have to go'

Government sources and aides said the president's brothers, former president and prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, were still in Sri Lanka.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left the main international airport near Colombo aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane early on Wednesday, the air force said in a statement.

A government source and a person close to the president said he was in Malé, the capital of the Maldives. The president would most likely proceed to another Asian country from there, the government source told Reuters.

Wickremesinghe, whose private residence in Colombo was set ablaze on Saturday, had offered to resign as prime minister but did not repeat that offer after he became acting president on Wednesday.

"We are strongly against the Gota-Ranil government. Both have to go," said Buddhi Prabodha Karunaratne, one of the organizers of recent protests.

Canadian embassy closed

Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as prime minister in May after protests against the family turned violent. He remained in hiding at a military base in the east of the country for some days before returning to Colombo.

On Tuesday, Sri Lankan immigration officials prevented Basil Rajapaksa, who quit in April as finance minister and resigned his parliament seat in June, from flying out of the country.

Wickremesinghe was named prime minister to succeed Mahinda Rajapaksa in May, the sixth time he's served in that role since the early 1990s.

Protester Sithara Sedaraliyanage, 28, said the people want new leaders who are young, educated and capable of running the economy.

"We don't know who will come next, but we have hope they will do a better job of fixing the problems," she told the AP. "Sri Lanka used to be a prosperous country."

Canadian and American embassies in the country have suspended in-person consular services due to the unrest.

Relying on China, India

The island nation's tourism-dependent economy was hammered first by the COVID-19 pandemic and then suffered from a fall in remittances from overseas Sri Lankans. A ban on chemical fertilizers hit output although the ban was later reversed.

The Rajapaksas implemented populist tax cuts in 2019 that affected government finances, while shrinking foreign reserves curtailed imports of fuel, food and medicines.

Petrol has been severely rationed and long lines have formed in front of shops selling cooking gas. Headline inflation hit 54.6 per cent last month and the central bank has warned that it could rise to 70 per cent in coming months.

The political impasse added fuel to the economic crisis since the absence of an alternative unity government threatened to delay a hoped-for bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

The government must submit a plan on debt sustainability to the IMF in August before reaching an agreement.

In the meantime, the country is relying on aid from neighbouring India and from China.