Several protesters Wednesday stormed the Prime Minister’s office at Flower Road in the capital city Colombo after the country’s embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country. Videos emerged of demonstrators holding national flags and taking pictures inside the building. In one such video, Sri Lankan military personnel can be seen guarding the PM’s office chair from protesters sitting close to it.
Security personnel can be seen in each corner of the room while protesters walk around the office maintaining a distance from the PM’s chair.
The 73-year-old leader had promised to resign on Wednesday but the Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said he is yet to receive his resignation. Abeywardena said that he informed President Rajapaksa to submit his letter of resignation as soon as possible, stating that he too is under pressure, News First Lanka reported on Thursday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been appointed as the interim President of Sri Lanka.
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Meanwhile, the protesters, who had occupied the key administrative buildings since Saturday, have agreed to vacate them even as they vow to press on with their bid to bring down the president and prime minister in the face of the dire economic crisis, news agency AFP reported.
Earlier, the protesters had maintained that they would hand over the properties to authorities only after an interim government takes over.
Political leaders have asked Wickremesinghe to step down so that Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena could take control as acting president, PTI reported. In a statement, Wickremesinghe asked the Speaker to find a suitable nominee to become the prime minister in an all-party interim government.