If the economic situation does not improve, protests become rarer. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the president of Sri Lanka, will not renew the state of emergency put in place in the face of protests against the economic crisis and criticized by rights groups, his office announced on Tuesday (August 16th).
“The situation in the country has stabilized, there is no need to impose the state of emergency again when it expires this week”, said the head of state, quoted by his office. The state of emergency was renewed on July 18 and can be extended monthly by the president.
Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected by parliament in July to replace President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country in the face of protests sparked by the economic crisis in early July. The new Head of State then had pledged to take tough action against “all the troublemakers”, and has since forcibly removed protesters from the main camp they occupied in the capital. Rights groups also denounced the ability of the president to overturn existing laws through a state of emergency to deal with any unrest.
