Lanka's Acting Prez Wickremesinghe declares emergency
Colombo: Sri Lanka's Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday declared a state of emergency giving him broad powers ahead of the crucial presidential election on Wednesday, a move dubbed as an "undemocratic draconian act" by the opposition leaders amid growing demands for his resignation.
Wickremesinghe, who was sworn-in as acting president on Friday after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives and then to Singapore from where he resigned in the face of public revolt against his government's mishandling of the country's economy, imposed the emergency as protests demanding his resignation too have continued in most parts of the country.
The government gazette dated July 17 imposing a state of emergency in the troubled nation was issued on Monday morning.
Wickremesinghe in the notification said that he was of the opinion enforcing public emergency was required in Sri Lanka 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 225-member Parliament is expected to elect the new president on July 20. The seat fell vacant after Rajapaksa's resignation last week.
The president is empowered to impose emergency regulations in part 2 of the public security ordinance which says (a) if the president is of the opinion that the police are inadequate to deal with a situation he may gazette an order calling out the armed forces to maintain public order .
This means that security forces gain the power to search, arrest, seize and remove weapons and explosives, and enter and search premises or persons.
Opposition leaders slammed the move to impose an emergency.
"Imposition of Emergency is an undemocratic draconian act. Peace loving citizens of our motherland have the sacred privilege to exercise their fundamental rights in a democratic society. Long live democracy," Leader of the Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party leader Sajith Premadasa tweeted.
Opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M A Sumanthiran in two separate tweets tagged media reports and wrote "'Ranil Rajapaksa': Wickremesinghe's Power Grab Will End Badly for Sri Lanka", "Why @RW_UNP has become unacceptable to the country to succeed @GotabayaR as President for the rest of the term?
The emergency order comes as Parliament is set to accept on Tuesday the nominations for the post of president, which fell vacant last week after Rajapaksa fled the country and later resigned. Rajapaksa is currently in Singapore.
At least four candidates, including Wickremesinghe, are in the race to become the new president who will serve the remaining tenure of Rajapaksa till November 2024. The voting in parliament is to take place on Wednesday. On Sunday, the acting president's office said he had ordered the police to keep track of those who threaten and influence parliamentarians in Wednesday's vote.
Meanwhile, Wickremesinghe on Monday urged the political parties to put aside their differences and form an all-party government which would allow the country to recover from the economic crisis as he assured the public that talks with the IMF were nearing conclusion.
"Acting President Wickremesinghe called upon the political parties in the country to put aside their differences and not allow the country to suffer over differences over an individual. He urged them to come together and form an All-Party Government which would allow the country to recover from the economic crisis," according to the statement issued by his office on his behalf.
In the statement, Wickremesinghe said that in the two months since he assumed the post of prime minister, power cuts had been reduced to 3 hours a day, fertiliser has been provided to the farmers and the gas shortage in the country has been solved.
