Security personnel stand guard outside the Parliament building, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka July 16, 2022.Security personnel stand guard outside the Parliament building, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka July 16, 2022.
“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 stated. Late on Sunday, Wickremesinghe who was sworn in on July 15 as acting president declared a fresh state of emergency, the specific legal provisions of which are yet to be announced by the government.
Bhavani Fonseka, senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, said declaring a state of emergency was becoming the government’s default response. “This has proven ineffective in the past,” Fonseka toldRajapaksa fled to the Maldives and then Singapore last week after hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters came out onto the streets of Colombo a week ago and occupied his official residence and office.