PM tweets as JO protest set to begin

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (L) and former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse smile during a Buddhist ceremony at the historic Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple in Colombo on February 22, 2016. Some 70 elephants, most of them from the central part of the island, together with thousands of traditional drummers, dancers and monks, gathered in the Sri Lankan capital to participate in the city's biggest two-day annual Buddhist procession from February 21 - 22, which was first held in 1979. / AFP / ISHARA S.KODIKARA (Photo credit should read ISHARA S.KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images)

September 5, 2018 (LBO) – The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe has tweeted in response to concerns related to the Joint Opposition protests set to begin and go through the night.

Organisers claim that 200,000 protestors will descend on the Nation’s commercial capital. This has caused some anxiety among the city’s residents with many establishments closed and light traffic on the streets.

The de facto leader of the JO, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is slated to participate in the demonstrations.

The PM has released the following tweets so far in response:

We have not tried to prevent people or protesters coming to Colombo. We have given them freedom. We have only instructed that the public should not be hindered by the protest.

— Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) September 5, 2018

September 05 is not a public holiday. Schoolchildren and office workers come to Colombo. Many other people, too, come to the city for their needs. We cannot let them to be affected by the protest.

— Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) September 5, 2018