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Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency on Wednesday after the president fled abroad to escape anti-government protests as thousands took to the streets, again angry that he had yet to surrender.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives early Wednesday after widespread protests against the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Hours later, with no official announcement that he would step down, thousands of protesters stormed the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, whom Rajapaksa appointed as acting president in his absence.
They demanded that both officials leave. “Go home Ranil, go home Gota,” they shouted. Sri Lanka’s anti-government protesters also stormed the main state television station on Wednesday and briefly took over the broadcast.
An unidentified man entered the Rupavahini network studio during a live program and ordered that only news related to the protest be broadcast.
The broadcast was interrupted and replaced with a recorded program.
Protesters in Sri Lanka, during the weekend, also entered the presidential palace.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to the Maldives on Wednesday, called the speaker of parliament and told her that his resignation letter would be sent later in the day.
“The president contacted me over the phone and said he will ensure that his resignation letter is received by me today,” Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a video statement.
“I call on the public to have faith in the parliamentary process to appoint a new president on the 20th and [i kërkoj] be peaceful”.
Rajapaksa enjoys immunity from arrest and is believed to have wanted to leave before resigning so he could not be detained when he was out of power. He, his wife and two bodyguards were the four passengers aboard an Antonov military plane. -32 that took off from Sri Lanka’s main international airport, immigration sources told AFP.
On arrival in the Maldives, they were taken to an undisclosed location under police escort, an airport official in the capital Male said.
The protesters in Sri Lanka, who during the weekend entered the presidential palace and burned the house of the prime minister, have demanded the resignation of the president and the prime minister, due to the economic crisis./rel
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