President Gotabaya Rajapaksa late Thursday named opposition veteran Ranil Wickremesinghe as the island nation’s prime minister, after a week of violent clashes that left nine people dead and more than 300 injured.
The president’s older brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned as prime minister on Monday amid escalating violence and is hiding at a military base.
“We will stop this struggle when our people get justice,” said Chamalage Shivakumar, one of hundreds who camped out at a protest site in Colombo’s main city.
“No matter who they appoint as prime minister, we won’t stop this fight until people get help.”
Wickremesinghe is his United National Party’s only lawmaker in the country’s parliament and will have to rely on rival political parties to form a government. A Rajapaksa-led alliance holds around 100 of the 225 seats in parliament, while the opposition has 58 seats. The others are independent.
Protesters said Wickremesinghe’s appointment will do little to quell anger at the president, whom they see as ultimately responsible for the worst economic crisis to hit the nation since independence in 1948.
Hard hit by the pandemic, rising oil prices and populist tax cuts by the Gotabaya brothers, Sri Lanka is in dire need of foreign currency. Rampant inflation and fuel shortages have taken thousands to the streets in a month of protests that have remained mostly peaceful until this week.