Sri Lanka's Acting President Declares Emergency as Protesters Continue to Demand His Resignation

The island nation's legislature will elect a new president on July 20. After fleeing Sri Lanka on July 13, Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president, a step fiercely opposed by anti-government protesters.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Acting President of Sri Lanka, on Monday declared a state of emergency as protesters continued their demonstration, days after the nation's former leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to flee last week.

"It is expedient, so to do, in the interests of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community," the notification issued on Monday read.

A nation-wide emergency was announced in the island two days before a parliamentary vote to choose the successor of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to Singapore via the Maldives on July 13.

Rajapaksa had stepped down from the post after thousands of anti-government demonstrators stormed the President's House and Secretariat on July 9.

They blamed his government, which came to power in 2019 with a sound majority, for Sri Lanka's economic collapse, which has left 22 million people without adequate food and fuel for months.

Gotabaya had appointed Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister in May after Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned over violent protests, in which at least nine people were killed and 230 others injured.

Wickremesinghe is the front-runner in the presidential election scheduled to take place on July 20; Gotabaya's Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party has extended its support to the 73-year-old veteran politician.

Popularly known as "Gota Go Home", the protests have completed 100 days on Sunday, with demonstrators saying they would not move away unless the parliament ensured "Gotabaya's man" was not elected as the next president.

The other contenders are Sajith Premadasa from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Marxist JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Dullas Alahapperuma, a breakaway SLPP candidate.

Gotabaya's SLPP is the largest party in the parliament, with 145 members in the 225-member legislature. To win the election, Wickremesinghe needs the support of only 113 MPs.

However, political observers have underscored that popular discontent against the Rajapaksa family may hinder Wickremesinghe's chance of becoming president, despite SLPP support for the veteran politician.

Sri Lankans still must wait days to buy a minimum amount of fuel and food. The country's foreign exchange reserves have plummeted to a record low, leaving the island nation to depend on foreign partners to receive aid.

Colombo owes $51 billion in foreign debt, primarily to US-backed venture funds and multi-lateral institutions.