Sri Lanka protesters refuse to leave president, PM residences until the men quit

Leaders of Sri Lanka’s protest movement said on Sunday they would occupy the residences of the president and prime minister until they finally quit office, the day after the two men agreed to resign, leaving the country in political limbo.

Sri Lanka’s opposition political parties were meeting to agree on a new government after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, which saw protesters storming both officials’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation’s economic crisis.

“The president (Gotabaya Rajapaksa) has to resign, the prime minister (Ranil Wickremesinghe) has to resign and the government has to go,” playwright Ruwanthie de Chickera told a news conference at the main protest site in Colombo on Sunday.

Flanked by other leaders helping coordinate the movement against the government, she said the crowds would not move out of the official residences until then.

The president’s whereabouts were unknown Sunday, although some reports said he was taking refuge on a vessel offshore, but a statement from his office said he ordered officials to start immediate distribution of a cooking gas consignment to the public, suggesting he was still at work.

Amazed ordinary folk took the opportunity to tour the colonial-era presidential palace. Security forces, some with rifles, stood outside the compound but did not stop people from going in.