Gotabya Rajapaksa flees, PM gets interim presidential powers: What next for Sri Lanka?

Hours before Sri Lankan President Gotabya Rajapaksa was to step down as promised on 13 July, he fled to the Maldives in a military aircraft. It further angered protesters who have been calling for his resignation. Hundreds and thousands of Lankans took to the streets of Colombo and security forces used tear gas shells to disperse mobs.

Protesters gathered in large numbers outside the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was appointed by Gotabaya in May after his elder brother Mahinda was ousted. Along with the president, they demanded that the prime minister should also resign.

“We want the PM to resign because as per our constitution if the president resigns PM becomes the acting president. People want both of them to leave,” a former adviser to the Sri Lankan foreign affairs ministry told news agency ANI.

Sri Lanka | We want the PM to resign because as per our constitution if the President resigns PM becomes the acting President. People want both of them to leave. Police took action by tear gas shelling. Army troops moved in: Former Advisor to Sri Lankan Foreign Affairs ministry pic.twitter.com/Q7Xf4K3Ahf

— ANI (@ANI) July 13, 2022

So what happens next in the country struggling with an economic crisis and now political instability.

Emergency declared

The crisis-hit island nation declared a nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday, hours after Gotabaya’s escape, the prime minister’s office said.

“Since the president is out of the country, an emergency has been declared to deal with the situation in the country,” Wickremesinghe’s spokesman Dinouk Colombage told AFP.

Wickremesinghe is acting president

According to the Sri Lankan Constitution, if the office of the president falls vacant before the expiration of his term of office, Parliament shall elect the president from one of its members. The successor will hold office for the rest of the term of the resigning president.

Until the new president is picked, the prime minister steps in and takes on the role of interim president.

Wickremesinghe was appointed acting president as incumbent Gotabaya Rajapaksa is overseas, the Speaker of Parliament announced as massive protests erupted in the country demanding both men step down.

“Because of his absence from the country, President Rajapaksa told me that he has appointed the prime minister to act as the president in line with the constitution,” Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana said in a brief televised statement. He will remain the acting president until the Parliament elects someone to the post.

A parliamentary ballot will be held on 20 July to elect the actual president.

According to the Constitution, the election has to be held within a month of the president’s resignation. It’s a secret ballot and the candidate can be appointed to the post only on winning an absolute majority.

Another defiant leader

While Wickremesinghe also announced his resignation on Saturday, as protesters overran the presidential palace and set fire to the prime minister’s residence, he has not mentioned when he would quit office. This is seen as a calculated move that would allow him to step in as president.

To ensure the continuation of the Government including the safety of all citizens I accept the best recommendation of the Party Leaders today, to make way for an All-Party Government.

To facilitate this I will resign as Prime Minister.

— Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) July 9, 2022

“I will safeguard the constitution. No one can go beyond it and no one can force or dictate Parliament from outside. I am here to safeguard the constitution, one must listen to the people but should act in accordance with the constitution. Sri Lanka needs an all-party government. We have to work for it,” he was quoted as saying by the Colombo-based newspaper Daily Mirror.

According to reports in the Sri Lankan media, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) — the Rajapaksa family party — supports Wickremesinghe’s transition to the President’s office. It is an indication that he too would be a candidate in the upcoming election, reports The Indian Express.

The anger against Wickremesinghe

Well aware that he was installed by Goatabya Rajapaksa, the common Lankans do not want Wickremesinghe to lead the country. With the president now fleeing the country, all anger is directed toward the latter, who is already calling the shots.

Wickremesinghe ordered forces to arrest people acting in a riotous manner and to stop vehicles on which they are travelling. A curfew has been imposed in the country’s western province, including Colombo, amid the emergency.

On Wednesday, the Sri Lankan police fired tear gas to hold back thousands of demonstrators mobbing the premier’s office in Colombo, reports AFP.

#WATCH | Sri Lanka: Protests erupt outside PM's residence amid heavy security deployment in Colombo as protestors raise slogans#SriLankaCrisis pic.twitter.com/5rRPjXW0qU

— ANI (@ANI) July 13, 2022

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said on Monday that there was “no alternative solution other than the appointment of the government led by a new president and prime minister.”

If not Wickremesinghe, then who?

Premadasa, who quit the UNP ahead of the 2020 parliamentary elections, is the opposition’s candidate to be president. His party Samagi Jana Balawegaya has 50 members in the House of 225.

Premadasa has told the BBC he intends to run for president once Gotabaya steps down. He lost the presidential election in 2019 and would need the support of the governing alliance MPs to win.

It is not known yet if is preparing to challenge Wickremesinghe’s transition to the role of president.

Another name which has been doing the rounds is that of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a young fiery politician from Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), reports ThePrint. He has the support of student unions and the party’s youth wing and has been giving political speeches in Tamil districts like Jaffna and Trincomalee.

According to the Daily Mirror, an all-party meeting was held on Monday which was attended by the SLPP, SJB, and other political outfits. A decision was taken to push the nomination of MP Dullas Alahapperuma and Opposition Leader [Premadasa] as the president and the prime minister of the proposed all-party government, the report says.

With inputs from agencies

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