COLOMBO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2022) The perimeter around the Sri Lankan parliament is secured due to a "parliamentary day," no citizens or journalists are allowed to approach the building, a Sputnik correspondent at the scene reported on Saturday.
An extraordinary session of parliament was convened on Saturday to confirm that the term of office of the ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has come to an end and to launch an emergency constitutional mechanism of electing the new president by parliamentary voting. The parliament will also appoint a caretaker government, which will remain in power until the next general election.
The Sri Lankan parliament, located in the center of the capital, is situated on an piece of land surrounded by water. All entries to the building are currently blocked by police forces. Security measures in the surrounding area are strengthened: there are many policemen, although they are not heavily armed and without special equipment.
There are neither any people, who are attempting to break through the roadblocks, nor are there any protests nearby or in any other part of the city.
Last weekend, Colombo, Sri Lanka's commercial capital, was rocked by thousand-strong protests, caused by public dissatisfaction with the government's inefficiency in fighting the economic crisis. Following the unrest, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, appointed as the acting president, called an emergency meeting of political party leaders, who demanded that both the prime minister and president resign immediately.
On Wednesday, after fleeing Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa arrived in the Maldives and then traveled to Singapore. The Singaporean authorities said that the outgoing Sri Lankan leader had not asked for an asylum and had not been granted one. On Thursday, Rajapaksa officially sent his letter of resignation through the High Commission of Sri Lanka in Singapore.
