In the last election, his once ruling UNP scraped just one parliamentary seat, meaning he was its sole representative in parliament - and fuelling opponents' claims that he lacked legitimacy for office. He blamed being 'out of the loop' on intelligence warnings. He was prime minister in 2019 when at least 250 people were killed in the deadly Easter Sunday bombings. Wickremesinghe improved his party's image by appointing a disciplinary commission to get rid of corrupt party members - and tried to improve his own image with new haircuts.Īround the turn of the century, he was considered a contender to be president, but his star waned. He himself narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

In 1994, he became leader of the United National Party (UNP)when Gamini Dissanayake was killed by suspected rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He was elected to parliament in 1977 and quickly moved up the party ladder, first serving as prime minister from 1993 to 1994. Ranil Wickremesinghe has suddenly been thrust from prime minister to the country's acting president, but who is he?Ī lawyer by profession, Wickremesinghe comes from an affluent family of politicians and businessmen. Protesters screamed in defiance, and began picking up the canisters with their bare hands or traffic cones and hurling them back into the compound. Suddenly the crowd was pelted with a volley of tear gas canisters shot from inside the compound. The metallic thumps echoed down the avenue to cheers, which only intensified when protesters succeeded in ripping the gates down. Protesters climbed up on the black gates to the compound and started rocking them back and forth to tear them off their hinges. Occasionally a canister of tear gas would be fired at the crowd, but it did little to deter them. Above their heads, a military helicopter flew low passes, prompting howls of anger and middle fingers from the crowd.Īngry protesters were attempting to break into the grounds of the compound, as rows of poker-faced soldiers and riot police lining the walls looked on.

Thousands began streaming towards the prime minister's compound. Our colleague Tessa Wong has been closely following the developments of a day that saw protesters break in to the prime minister's office after their president fled the country. Reuters Copyright: Reuters Police tried to stop the break-in with tear gas Image caption: Police tried to stop the break-in with tear gas Some even hailed him as Emperor Mahinda,' says veteran political analyst Kusal Perera. 'He was the most popular Sinhala Buddhist leader in post-independence Sri Lanka. He was compared to Sinhala Buddhist kings at victory parades and mass public events. Mahinda Rajapaksa was once celebrated by the majority Sinhalese as a hero for bringing an end to nearly three decades of civil war when the Tamil Tiger rebels were crushed in 2009 during his first term as president.

How did the Rajapaksas, once hailed by many Sri Lankans as heroes, come to be reviled as leaders? Sharply rising prices had set off mass protests in April, and the growing anger forced Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa - the departing president's elder brother - out of power in May. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in the early hours of Wednesday - a humiliating exit for a man whose family had been in power for nearly two decades.ĭays before, hundreds of protesters had stormed his official residence, demanding that he resign over Sri Lanka's economic crisis, which has seen no respite in months. AFP Copyright: AFP Gotabaya Rajapaksa (left) and his brother Mahinda Image caption: Gotabaya Rajapaksa (left) and his brother Mahinda

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