inp.polri.go.id – Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa handed over the power to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe after he fled to the Maldives amid mass protests. "Because President Rajapaksa left the country, he told me that he appointed the prime minister to work as president according to the constitution," said Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, Wednesday (13/7). Wickremesinghe himself has immediately used his authority as president by declaring a state of emergency. "The prime minister (Wickremesinghe) as interim president has declared a state emergency (over the entire country) and imposed a curfew in the western provinces," Wickremesinghe's media secretary, Dinouk Colombage, told Reuters. Conditions in Sri Lanka became increasingly uncertain after Gotabaya managed to escape to the Maldives on a military plane on Wednesday, the day he was rumored to be announcing his retirement. He fled after mobs occupied his home and Wickremesinghe's residence last weekend. According to Sri Lanka's constitution, the PM will immediately take power if the president steps down. However, Wickremesinghe himself had previously stated that he would step down from the position of PM. The mob stormed Wickremesinghe's house on Wednesday. They urged Wickremesinghe to immediately announce the exact time of his resignation. The officers reportedly immediately brought order to the crowd in various ways, one of which was by firing tear gas.