Dinesh Gunawardena took the constitutional oath as the new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka today, Friday, according to local television channels.

Gunawardena's appointment comes a day after Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has served as Prime Minister six times, took the oath as the new president of the country, succeeding former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country following a major wave of protests due to the severe economic crisis and the storming of his palace by angry crowds.

At midnight Thursday to Friday, the Sri Lankan army carried out arrests among the protesters, demolished the tents of the sit-in protesters in front of the presidential office in the capital Colombo, and blocked roads leading to the protest sites that the country had witnessed recently.

These measures came under the state of emergency imposed by the new president, and it appears that the political decision has indeed been made to end these protests in the country, according to international media.

International media confirmed that it is now up to the protesters and their ability to regroup and the security forces' readiness to implement these measures.

They said that the reason for the popular rejection of the new president is because he is considered part of the system that led to the country's collapse.

Regarding the protesters' demands to end their protests, international media pointed to the protesters' primary desire for the new president to step down, similar to his predecessor, and to hold early elections within a year that would produce a new system, along with constitutional amendments where the former president changed articles in the constitution that granted the president significant powers at the expense of the government.