Sri Lankan lawmakers met Saturday to begin choosing a new leader to serve the rest of the term abandoned by the president who fled abroad and resigned after mass protests over the country’s economic collapse. A day earlier, Sri Lanka’s prime minister was sworn in as interim president until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose term ends in 2024. Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana promised a swift and transparent political process that should be done within a week. The new president could appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament. Parliament’s secretary general, Dhammika Dasanayake, said during a brief session on Saturday that nominations for the election of the new president will be heard on Tuesday and if there is more than one candidate, the lawmakers will vote on Wednesday. Dasanayake also read Gotabaya’s resignation letter out loud in Parliament. In the letter, Rajapaksa says he was stepping down following requests by the people of Sri Lanka and political party leaders. He notes that the economic crisis was looming even when he took office in 2019 and was aggravated by frequent lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. Security around the Parliament building in the capital, Colombo, was heightened on Saturday with armed masked soldiers on guard and roads near the building closed to the public. In a televised statement on Friday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he would initiate steps to change the constitution to curb presidential powers and strengthen Parliament, restore law and order and take legal action against “insurgents.” Read: Sri Lankan president resigns, Parliament to convene It was unclear to whom he was referring, although he said true protesters would not have gotten involved in clashes Wednesday night near Parliament, where many soldiers reportedly were injured. “There is a big difference between protesters and insurgents. We will take legal action against insurgents,” he said. Wickremesinghe became acting president after Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka on Wednesday and flew first to the Maldives and then to Singapore. Many protesters insisted that Wickremesinghe too should step aside. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s opposition leader, who is seeking the presidency, vowed to “listen to the people” and to hold Rajapaksa accountable. In an interview with The Associated Press from his office, Sajith Premadasa said that if he wins the election in Parliament, he would ensure that “an elective dictatorship never, ever occurs” in Sri Lanka. “That’s what we should do. That is our function — catching those who looted Sri Lanka. That should be done through proper constitutional, legal, democratic procedures,” Premadasa said. Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for imports of basic necessities such as food, fertilizer, medicine and fuel for its 22 million people. Its rapid economic decline has been all the more shocking because, before this crisis, the economy had been expanding, with a growing, comfortable middle class. The protests underscored the dramatic fall of the Rajapaksa political clan that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. The Rev. Jeewantha Peiris, a Catholic priest and protest leader, said the country had “come through a hard journey.” “We are happy as a collective effort because this struggle of Sri Lanka was participated by all the citizens of Sri Lanka, even diaspora of Sri Lanka,” he said. Sri Lanka remains a powder keg, and the military warned Thursday that it had powers to respond in case of chaos — a message some found ominous. The speaker urged the public to “create a peaceful atmosphere” for the democratic process and for Parliament to “function freely and conscientiously.” Sri Lanka is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund and other creditors, but its finances are so poor that even obtaining a bailout has proven difficult, Wickremesinghe recently said. The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful political family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the country’s collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajapaksa acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lanka’s meltdown. Maduka Iroshan, 26, a university student and protester, said he was “thrilled” that Rajapaksa had quit, because he “ruined the dreams of the young generation.” Months of protests reached a frenzied peak last weekend when demonstrators stormed the president’s home and office and Wickremesinghe’s official residence. On Wednesday, they seized his office. The demonstrators initially vowed to stay until a new government was in place, but they shifted tactics Thursday, apparently concerned that an escalation in violence could undermine their message following clashes outside Parliament that left dozens injured. Protester Mirak Raheem noted the lack of violence and said the work was far from over. “This is really something amazing, the fact that it happened on the back of largely peaceful protest. But obviously this is just a beginning,” Raheem said, citing work to rebuild the economy and restore public confidence in the political system. Rajapaksa and his wife slipped away in the night aboard a military plane early Wednesday. On Thursday, he went to Singapore, according to the city-state’s Foreign Ministry. It said he had not requested asylum, and it was unclear if he would stay or move on. He previously has obtained medical services there, including undergoing heart surgery. Since Sri Lankan presidents are protected from arrest while in power, Rajapaksa likely wanted to leave while he still had constitutional immunity and access to the plane. As a military strategist whose brutal campaign helped end the country’s 26-year civil war, Rajapaksa and his brother, who was president at the time, were once hailed by the island’s Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Despite accusations of wartime atrocities, including ordering military attacks on ethnic Tamil civilians and abducting journalists, Rajapaksa remained popular among many Sri Lankans. He has continually denied the allegations.

Military troops were moving Thursday to secure Sri Lanka’s parliament building against a takeover by protesters infuriated by the country’s economic collapse and the embattled president’s failure to resign a day after fleeing the country. With the country sinking into political chaos, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife fled to the Maldives on Wednesday aboard an air force jet. He made the prime minister acting president in his absence — a move that further roiled passions among a public that blames Rajapaksa for an economic crisis that has caused severe shortages of food and fuel. Rajapaksa had promised to resign by Wednesday night, and since Sri Lankan presidents are protected from arrest while in power it’s likely he planned his departure while he still had constitutional immunity and access to a military jet. It was unclear exactly where he was in the Maldives, an archipelago of hundreds of islands dotted with luxury tourist resorts, and where he planned to travel next. Troops in green military uniforms and camouflage vests arrived by armored personnel carriers at the parliament building, anticipating more protests after a group attempted to storm the entrance the previous day, clashing with police who fended them off with tear gas and batons. Some protesters posted videos on social media pleading with others not to storm the Parliament, fearing an escalation of violence. On Wednesday, protesters who were undeterred by multiple rounds of tear gas scaled the walls to enter the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the crowd outside cheered in support and tossed water bottles to them. Protesters took turns posing at the prime minister’s desk or stood on a rooftop terrace waving the Sri Lankan flag. “We need both ... to go home,” said Supun Eranga, a 28-year-old civil servant in the crowd on Wednesday. “Ranil couldn’t deliver what he promised during his two months, so he should quit. All Ranil did was try to protect the Rajapaksas.” Read:Thousands protest against Sri Lanka's new acting president Demonstrators also have crowded inside the presidential palace they began occupying over the weekend and are vowing to stay in both buildings to press their demands for a new government. Some set fire to Wickremesinghe’s private residence, and his whereabouts were unknown. Wickremesinghe’s office has imposed a state of emergency giving broader powers to the military and police. Defense leaders have called for calm and cooperation with security forces — comments that have rankled some lawmakers who insist civilian leaders would be the ones to find a solution. The protesters blame Rajapaksa and his powerful, dynastic family for leading the country into an economic abyss, but they are also furious with Wickremesinghe, whom they accuse of protecting the president. Many believe that his appointment in May alleviated pressure on Rajapaksa to resign. Both leaders said after the protests escalated over the weekend that they would resign, but Wickremesinghe said he will not leave until a new government is in place. He has urged the speaker of Parliament to find a new prime minister agreeable to both the ruling and opposition parties. It’s unclear when that might happen since the opposition is deeply fractured. But assuming that Rajapaksa resigns as promised, Sri Lankan lawmakers have agreed to elect a new president on July 20 who will serve the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in 2024. That person could potentially appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament. The political impasse threatens to worsen the bankrupt nation’s economic collapse since the absence of an alternative government could delay a hoped-for bailout from the International Monetary Fund. In the meantime, the country is relying on aid from India and China. Protesters accuse the president and his relatives of siphoning money from government coffers for years and Rajapaksa’s administration of hastening the country’s collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajapaksa acknowledged some of his policies contributed to the meltdown. The shortages of basic necessities have sown despair among Sri Lanka’s 22 million people. The country’s rapid decline was all the more shocking because, before the recent crisis, the economy had been expanding, with a growing, comfortable middle class. “Gotabaya resigning is one problem solved — but there are so many more,” said Bhasura Wickremesinghe, a 24-year-old student of maritime electrical engineering, who is not related to the prime minister. He complained that Sri Lankan politics have been dominated for years by “old politicians” who all need to go. “Politics needs to be treated like a job — you need to have qualifications that get you hired, not because of what your last name is,” he said, referring to the Rajapaksa family. After the president fled to the Maldives the whereabouts of other Rajapaksa family members who had served in the government were unclear.

Sri Lanka's acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday declared a nationwide curfew effective until Thursday morning. The order directs that no person shall be on any public road, railway, public park, public recreation ground or other public ground or the seashore in such areas till 5 a.m. on Thursday, except under the authority of a written permit granted by relevant authorities. Meanwhile, Wickremesinghe on Wednesday informed Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to nominate a prime minister who is acceptable to both the government and opposition. Protesters surrounded and entered the Prime Minister's Office in Colombo on Wednesday, calling for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe. Read:Thousands protest against Sri Lanka's new acting president Rajapaksa, who left for the Maldives earlier on Wednesday, was expected to hand in his resignation from the presidency later in the day amid a severe economic crisis.

Protesters stormed the Sri Lankan prime minster’s office after the president fled the country only hours before he was to step down amid a devastating economic crisis that has triggered severe shortages of food and fuel. In recent days, protesters have occupied several government buildings demanding their top leaders step down. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane bound for the city of Male, the capital of the Maldives, according to an immigration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Rajapaksa had agreed to resign under pressure. Read: Sri Lanka's new president to be elected on July 20: speaker Protesters are demanding that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe step down immediately. He said he would leave once a new government was in place.

Before he fled Sri Lanka on Wednesday amid a crushing economic crisis, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the last of six members of the country’s most influential family still clinging to power. Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards flew to the city of Male, the capital of the Maldives, according to an immigration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. His departure comes four days after massive crowds broke into his official residence and occupied his seaside office, and he pledged to leave the country. Protesters also stormed the residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has said he will leave once a new government is in place. Read: Sri Lanka's new president to be elected on July 20: speaker Here is a closer look at the rise and fall of Rajapaksa: A FAMILY AFFAIR For decades, the powerful land-owning Rajapaksa family had dominated local politics in their rural southern district before Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected president in 2005. Appealing to the nationalist sentiment of the island’s Buddhist-Sinhalese majority, he led Sri Lanka into a triumphant victory over ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009, ending a 26-year brutal civil war that had divided the country. His younger brother, Gotabaya, was a powerful official and military strategist in the Ministry of Defense. Mahinda remained in office until 2015, when he lost to the opposition led by his former aide. But the family made a comeback in 2019, when Gotabaya won the presidential election on a promise to restore security in the wake of the Easter Sunday terrorist suicide bombings that killed 290 people. He vowed to bring back the muscular nationalism that had made his family popular with the Buddhist majority, and to lead the country out of an economic slump with a message of stability and development. Instead, he made a series of fatal mistakes that ushered in an unprecedented crisis. TAX CUTS DRAIN GOVERNMENT FUNDS As tourism plunged in the wake of the bombings and foreign loans on controversial development projects — including a port and an airport in the president’s home region — needed to be repaid, Rajapaksa didn’t listen to economic advisers and pushed through the largest tax cuts in the country’s history. It was meant to spur spending, but critics warned it would slash the government’s finances. Pandemic lockdowns and an ill-advised ban on chemical fertilizers further hurt the fragile economy. The country soon ran out of money and couldn’t repay its huge debts. Shortages of food, cooking gas, fuel and medicine stoked public anger at what many saw as mismanagement, corruption and nepotism. THE END BEGINS The family’s unravelling began in April, when growing protests forced three Rajapaksa relatives, including the finance minister, to quit their Cabinet posts and another to leave his ministerial job. In May, government supporters attacked protesters in a wave of violence that left nine dead. The anger of the protesters turned against Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was pressured to resign as prime minister and took refuge on a heavily fortified naval base. But Gotabaya refused to go, triggering chants in the streets of “Gota Go Home!” Instead, he saw his savior in Wickremesinghe, a seasoned opposition politician who he brought in to steer the country out of the abyss. Ultimately, however, Wickremesinghe lacked the political heft and public support needed to get the job done.

A weekend of political chaos in Sri Lanka stretched into Monday, with opposition leaders yet to agree on replacements for embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his prime minister, whose residences remain occupied by protesters angered by the country’s economic collapse. Crowds of demonstrators overran Rajapaksa’s home, his seaside office and the official residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday and demanded they step down in the most dramatic day of the three-month crisis. Leaders of two opposition parties held talks Monday but could not agree on their choices for president and prime minister. Corruption and mismanagement has left the island nation laden with debt, unable to pay for imports of food, fuel, medicine and other necessities, causing widespread shortages and despair among its 22 million people. The country is seeking help from neighboring India, China and the International Monetary Fund. Rajapaksa has said he will step down on Wednesday, according to the speaker of parliament. The protesters have vowed to stay until the resignations are official. In a video statement Monday, the first since the weekend protests, Wickremesinghe reiterated he will stay on until a new government is in place because he wants to work within the constitution. “A government has to function according to the law. I am here to protect the constitution and through it fulfill the people’s demands,” Wickremesinghe said. “What we need today is an all-party government and we will take steps to establish that.” The president hasn’t been seen or heard publicly since Saturday and his location is unknown. But his office said Sunday he ordered the immediate distribution of a cooking gas consignment to the public, indicating he was still at work. Months of demonstrations have all but dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. Wickremesinghe also explained the sequence of events that led to the burning of his private residence on Saturday. He said the protesters gathered around his house after a lawmaker, in what Wickremesinghe said was an inaccurate tweet, stated he had refused to resign at a meeting of parliamentary party leaders. Police charged with batons and fired tear gas, he said, adding: “The last option was to shoot. We did not shoot but they came and burnt the house.” A group of nine Cabinet ministers said Monday they will quit immediately to make way for an all-party government, outgoing Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe said. Wickremesinghe’s office said another group that met with him decided to stay on until a new government is formed. The talks by opposition party leaders to form an alternative unity government is an urgent requirement of a bankrupt nation to continue discussions with the IMF. Lawmaker Udaya Gammanpila said the main opposition United People’s Front and lawmakers who have defected Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition have agreed to work together. Main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Dullas Alahapperuma, who was a minister under Rajapaksa, have been proposed to take over as president and prime minister and had been asked to decide on how to share the positions before a meeting with the parliamentary speaker Monday, but they did not reach an agreement. “We can’t be in an anarchical condition. We have to somehow reach a consensus today,” Gammanpila said. Opposition parties also are concerned about military leaders making statements on public security in the absence of a civil administration. Lawmakers discussed Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Shavendra Silva’s statement over the weekend urging public cooperation to maintain law and order, said Kavinda Makalanda, spokesperson for Premadasa. “A civil administration is the need, not the military, in a democratic country,” Makalanda said. If opposition parties fail to form a government by the time Rajapaksa resigns, Wickremesinghe as prime minister will become acting president under the constitution. In line with the protesters’ demands, however, opposition parties don’t want him even as acting president. They said that Wickremesinghe should promptly resign and allow Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to be acting president — the next in line under the constitution. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the country’s main lawyers’ body, has also endorsed that position. Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May to try to resolve the shortages and start economic recovery. But delays in restoring even basic supplies has turned public anger against him, with protesters accusing him of protecting the president. When Wickremesinghe took over as prime minister to salvage the economy, he said it would take at least a year to complete the initial steps needed for a full recovery. Wickremesinghe had been part of crucial talks with the IMF for a bailout program and with the World Food Program to prepare for a predicted food crisis. The government must submit a plan on debt sustainability to the IMF in August before reaching an agreement. Read: Sri Lanka in political vacuum as talks go on amid crisis Sri Lanka is relying on aid from India and other nations until it is able to secure a deal in its negotiations with the IMF. Wickremesinghe said recently the talks were complex because Sri Lanka is now bankrupt. Sri Lanka announced in April it was suspending repayment of foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to $51 billion, of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027. In describing the burning of his residence Saturday, Wickremesinghe said he lost what he called “my biggest treasure” — his library of 2,500 books, including those written during the Portuguese and Dutch colonial period from the 16th and 19th centuries. He said there were old books written on Buddhism, those signed by leaders like former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, historical paintings and Buddhist artifacts, which he had planned donating to his old school and a university after his death. He said he also lost all of his collection of paintings except for one.