AFP: Sri Lanka’s anti-Government demonstrators said Thursday they were ending their occupation of official buildings, as they vowed to press on with their bid to bring down the President and Prime Minister in the face of a dire economic crisis.

Protesters overran President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s palace at the weekend, forcing him to flee to the Maldives on Wednesday, when activists also stormed the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Rajapaksa had promised to resign on Wednesday, but there was no announcement he had done so.

The premier, whom Rajapaksa named as Acting President in his absence, had demanded the evacuation of State buildings and instructed security forces to do “what is necessary to restore order”.

“We are peacefully withdrawing from the Presidential Palace, the Presidential Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office with immediate effect, but will continue our struggle,” a spokeswoman for the protesters said.

A top Buddhist monk supporting the campaign had earlier called for the more than 200-years-old Presidential Palace to be handed back to authorities and ensure its valuable art and artefacts were preserved. “This building is a national treasure and it should be protected,” Monk Omalpe Sobitha told reporters. “There must be a proper audit and the property given back to the State.” Hundreds of thousands have visited the compound since it was opened out to the public after Rajapaksa fled and his security guards backed down.

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