Members of the Sri Lankan community in New Zealand are pleased Sri Lanka's president is stepping down, but worry about what happens next.
Police use a water canon to disperse demonstrators taking part in an anti-government protest demanding the resignation of Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the country's crippling economic crisis, in Colombo on 8 July. Photo: AFP
Thousands of protesters stormed the president's house, demanding he go over a dire economic crisis in a violent day of protest.
Sri Lanka's prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will join President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in stepping down after protesters stormed their homes in a rage over the country's economic crisis.
Wickremesinghe says he will leave office once a new government is in place.
In New Zealand, United Sri Lanka Association president Rangith Nanayakkara said the president should have gone a long time ago.
"Yesterday was a big turning point. I think people are happy with what's happening."
People had been struggling to get food and medication amid economic hardship for some time, Nanayakkara said.
"There are so many burning issues - we don't have enough food items, medicine ... they need to have some kind of solution for them."
At least 39 people, including two police officers, have been injured and hospitalised in the protests.
Police on Friday tried to thwart the protests with a curfew, but lawyers and opposition politicians denounced it as illegal.
Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis in 70 years has sparked acute shortages, with people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.
Sri Lanka's speaker's office says under the acting president a new prime minister and an interim government can be appointed.
