Security forces in riot gear dislodged the demonstrators and dismantled the barricades that blocked the main entrance to the secretariat of the presidency. The protesters, who had been camping there since early April, had previously announced they would leave the area on Friday afternoon.
Witnesses saw soldiers arresting several people and destroying the tents erected along the avenue leading to the presidential palace, while the police blocked the adjacent streets to prevent new demonstrators from arriving on the spot.
The new president had previously asked the protesters to leave the premises or risk being forcibly evacuated. "If you try to overthrow the government, occupy the president's office and the prime minister's office, that's not democracy, that's outlawed," Wickremesinghe said.
He also introduced a state of emergency, which gives the armed forces and the police sweeping powers to arrest suspects and detain them for a long time without charge.
On Wednesday, a court had ordered the demonstrators to stop occupying the public road in front of the presidency and to gather in another designated place.
Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected president of Sri Lanka on Wednesday to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who hastily fled his palace on July 9, stormed by thousands of angry protesters, and has since taken refuge in Singapore from where he has submitted his resignation.
- Government of unity -
The new head of state, elected for the remaining period of Mr. Rajapaksa's mandate which ends in November 2024, showed his desire to appoint a government of national unity on Friday.
He inherits a country ravaged by a catastrophic economic crisis, characterized by shortages of food, electricity and fuel, and which defaulted on its external debt of 51 billion dollars.
Mr. Wickremesinghe is a 73-year-old cacique who has been prime minister six times. He is accused by the protesters of being an ally of the Rajapaksa, an all-powerful family clan in Sri Lanka for more than two decades, which he denies.
"I am not a friend of the Rajapakasa. I am a friend of the people," he told reporters.
In search of a prime minister, the new president could appoint his childhood friend Dinesh Gunawardena, a former civil service minister and fervent supporter of the Rajapaksa clan. But according to political sources, at least two other personalities are also in the running for the post.
Mr. Wickremesinghe is keen to bring together a coalition of all formations, said a source in his entourage, adding that "a few deputies from the main opposition will join the cabinet".
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, who backed a rival candidate in parliament's election of the president on Wednesday, said on Twitter on Thursday that he met Wickremesinghe and discussed how to shield the country from new "miseries and disasters".
"As the opposition, we will lend our constructive support to efforts to alleviate human suffering," Premadasa tweeted.
