On the 100th day of their protest movement in Sri Lanka On Sunday, protesters who precipitated the downfall of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa by blaming him for the country’s catastrophic economic crisis are now casting their wrath on his successor.
The “struggle” campaign for Rajapaksa’s departure, which was widely coordinated on social media, began on 09 April. Tens of thousands of demonstrators who came from all over the country set up tents in front of the presidential offices in the capital, Colombo.
The movement was initially supposed to last for two days, but the organizers, surprised by the crowd response that far exceeded expectations, decided to keep the sit-in indefinitely.
The economic crisis, which has led to severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel and electricity, has united the majority Sinhalese Buddhist and minority Tamils and Muslims, the hard-to-reconcile ethnic groups, in hatred of Rajapaksa and his surroundings.
On July 09, protesters stormed the residence of the president, who was forced to flee. Rajapaksa sent his resignation letter, which the Sri Lankan parliament speaker announced on Friday accepted.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has been installed as the country’s acting president, appears to be the most likely candidate to succeed Rajapaksa. Parliament will meet to elect a new president on July 20.
This has not been enough to calm the protesters who still camp in front of the presidential buildings, although their numbers have decreased since Rajapaksa stepped down. The demonstrators left the presidential buildings that they stormed.
“It’s been 100 days since the beginning,” activist Prasad Welikumpura wrote in a tweet on Sunday, also calling on Wickremesinghe to relinquish power. He added, “But we are still far from any change in the regime,” with the hashtags “Ranil leave” and “I’m not my boss.”
“We are studying with the groups involved in the struggle the direction of the campaign against Ranil Wickremesinghe,” a spokesman for the protesters camped in Colombo told AFP.
The interim president has ordered the army to do everything in its power to maintain order, and police and army reinforcements will be sent to the capital on Monday to ensure security around parliament ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
(AFP)