Sri Lankan Prime Minister and interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe declared a nationwide state of emergency after the head of state, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled amid ongoing protests on the island.
A Wickremesinghe spokesman on Wednesday said that since the president was abroad, a state of emergency had been declared to deal with the situation.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was supposed to resign today, but early this morning he was reported to have fled abroad with his wife and two bodyguards aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane.
It is understood that they arrived in the capital, Maldives at 6 am Malaysian time according to a BBC report.
Under the Sri Lankan constitution, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should take over power as he is considered the deputy president in parliament.
However, Gotabaya Rajapaksa still has to submit a letter of resignation to the speaker of parliament to trigger an election to allow a new administrator to replace him.
Protests in Sri Lanka have erupted in March 2022 amid the economic and political crisis the country has faced since 2019.
Soaring inflation has caused essential goods including food, medicine and fuel to run out of supply, thus angering the people who blamed the Rajapaksa family and the government for the situation.
