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2022 Sri Lankan protests were a series of protests by many non-partisan protesters, mainly the general public and opposition political parties against the government of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. They believe Rajapaksa is not doing a good job at fixing Sri Lanka's economy which has caused an economic crisis with severe inflation, daily blackouts up to 10–13 hours, a shortage of fuel and many essential items. Many of the protesters want the government run by the Rajapaksa family to resign, and creating new set of qualified democratic rulers.[1][2]
The protesters commonly chanted slogans such as "Go home Gota", ''Go Home Rajapaksas'' and "Gota pissek" (Gota is a lunatic).[3]
The protests have been mainly staged by the general public including teachers, students, doctors, nurses, IT professionals, farmers, lawyers, social activists, sportspersons, engineers, and a few police officers.[4][5]
On 9 July 2022, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced their resignations after protestors storm their homes in Colombo.[6] However, Rajapaksa promised to resign on 13 July, but instead left the country to the Maldives and later Singapore and stayed as president.[7][8] He would officially resign as president on 14 July.[9] On 20 July 2022, Wickremesinghe was elected president.[10]
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