A spokesman for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said he called for stricter laws to “ensure public order” after shops closed and public transport halted on Friday, leaving the South Asian island nation of 22 million people unrest. Came to a standstill.
Earlier on Friday, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse students who were trying to storm the national parliament demanding Rajapaksa’s resignation.
Emergencies give broad powers to security forces to arrest and detain suspects for long periods without judicial supervision.
It also allows deployment of troops to maintain law and order in addition to the police.
The spokesman said the laws would be effective from Friday midnight.
The troubled Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency on April 1, a day after thousands of protesters attempted to storm his private home in the capital. That emergency was allowed to end on April 14.
But protests have intensified since then, fueling Sri Lanka’s worst crisis since independence in 1948.
The new emergency declaration came as thousands of protesters remained outside Rajapaksa’s sea-facing office, where they have been protesting since April 9, and smaller groups also tried to storm the homes of other prominent government politicians.
The students’ attempt to storm the tight security legislature on Friday was their second attempt in as many days.
He and other protesters blame Rajapaksa and his ruling family for the mismanagement of the economy. Months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have caused widespread distress across the island.
Lakhs of workers stopped work on Friday in the strike organized by the country’s trade union movement. Train and government bus services were disrupted.
Industrial workers demonstrated outside their factories and black flags were displayed across the country as an expression of anger against the government.
Trade union leader Ravi Kumudesh said, “We can trace the policy blunders of the President, which led to this very pathetic condition of our economy.” “He must go.”
Private Bus Operators Association president Jemunu Wijeratne said private buses, which account for two-thirds of the country’s fleet, were also off the road.
“We are not providing services today, but if groups of people want to take part in anti-government protests within a 20-km radius, we will provide our buses for free,” Wijeratne told reporters in Colombo.
Rajapaksa has insisted he will not step down despite mounting protests outside his office, including protests that have forced him to work from home.
Official sources said the president may pressure his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, to step down and allow the formation of a unity government to lift the country out of the economic crisis.
The main opposition SJB party has insisted that it will play no role in national administration unless the president also accepts responsibility for mismanagement and corruption.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis took hold as the coronavirus pandemic decimated income from tourism and remittances.
Unable to pay for fuel imports, utilities have imposed daily blackouts to ration electricity, while long queues of people form around service stations for petrol and kerosene.
There is a shortage of vital medicines in hospitals and the government has appealed for donations from citizens abroad.
Last month Sri Lanka announced it was defaulting on its $51 billion foreign debt, and Finance Minister Ali Sabri warned this week that the country would have to endure its unprecedented economic hardships for at least two more years. .
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