The government was heavily criticized for mismanaging the Sri Lankan economy, which led to a subsequent economic crisis involving severe inflation, daily blackouts, and a shortage of fuel, domestic gas, and other essential goods.

[24][25][26][27] The government reacted to the protests with authoritarian methods, such as declaring a state of emergency, allowing the military to arrest civilians, imposing curfews, and restricting access to social media.

[31][32] In April, the government's ban on social media was perceived to have backfired; hashtags such as #GoHomeGota, which is believed to have been coined by an activist called Pathum Kerner in December 2021, had begun trending on Twitter internationally.

[40] In July 2022, protesters occupied the President's House in Colombo, causing Rajapaksa to flee and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to announce his own willingness to resign.

In 2021, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the Pandora Papers, which included information about Nirupama Rajapaksa, who had used offshore shell companies and trusts to secretly stash the family's wealth around the world.

[64] Udaya Gammanpila, the leader of the government-aligned Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, claimed that the party has no intention of re-electing a Rajapaksa, which would end of the nepotism that has plagued Sri Lankan politics.

As protests began to grow, government MPs refused to acknowledge them, fueling the rapid growth of unorganized, non-partisan demonstrations where hundreds of citizens would gather after work to voice their dissent.

[10][70] Protesters then set fire to two military buses and a police jeep, threw stones at officers, and blocked Colombo's main highway by burning tires.

[77][78] The same day, the Samagi Vanitha Balawegaya, headed by the SJB politician and former parliamentarian Hirunika Premachandra, staged a march from Point Pedro in Jaffna in protest of the economic hardships faced by the public.

[87] Other Sri Lankan cricketers, including Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Arjuna Ranatunga, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Muttiah Muralitharan, Rangana Herath, Dhammika Prasad and Marvan Atapattu, also took to social media and online forums to express support of and advocate for the rights of the public during the crisis.

[96] On 3 April, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) announced that service providers had blocked social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube due to a request from the Ministry of Defence.

[97] Oshada Senanayake, the Chairman of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka, tendered his resignation amidst the social media blackout, stating that he was standing by his ethos and principles.

Moments after performing Bob Marley's Get up, Stand up to entertain the protesters at Galle Face, rapper Shiraz Rudebwoy had a sudden heart attack and collapsed.

On its official Twitter, Sri Lankan Airlines claimed that they had made history by operating three successive cargo charter flights to Entebbe International Airport in Uganda.

[218][219] In May, on its official Twitter account, Daily Mirror shared that an unnamed leading telecommunications company had installed a telephone tower to send and enhance signals at the Gotagogama site.

[223] On 3 May, Ramadan Eid-Ul-Fitr Festival was celebrated at the Gotagogama site at Galle Face with the participation of several religious leaders, including Buddhist monks and Christian priests.

[224][225] Protesters shared Sawans with biriyani in celebration and members of the Sri Lankan Muslim Civil Society donated 700 lunch parcels to Gotagogama on the eve of Ramadan.

[226] The Mynagogama protest site was set up on the Galle Road entrance to Temple Trees, the Prime Minister's official residence,[227][228] inspired both by Gotagogama and by Mahinda Rajapaksa's new nickname "Myna" from the protestors.

[244] On 28 April 2022, over 1000 trade unions conducted a massive island-wide, one-day token strike in support of the ongoing public protests against the government at the Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo.

[252] The Rajapaksas also increasingly began to turn to supernatural and divine intervention to maintain power, with media reports of the president's personal shaman, Gnana Akka, sending charmed bottles of water to the protest site.

Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Anuradhapura to seek blessings from the Sri Maha Bodhi but was booed and heckled by citizens while residents protested, demanding that "thieves" be banned from the city, which is considered holy by Buddhists.

[citation needed] MP Amarakeerthi Athukorala reportedly shot several protesters who were gathered in Nittambuwa before he was forced to take refuge in a building after being surrounded by thousands of protestors.

By contrast, the properties of politicians that lived in areas where officers were still appointed based on merit were saved, such as in Elpitiya, where the police managed to protect the house of ex-state minister Geetha Kumarasinghe.

These include Mahinda Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Johnston Fernando, Sanjeewa Edirimanne, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, C. B. Ratnayake, Sanath Nishantha, Kanchana Jayaratne, Sampath Athukorala, Mahinda Kahandagama, Renuka Perera, Nishantha Abeysinghe, Amitha Abeywickrama, Pushpalal Kumarasinghe, Dilip Fernando, Senior DIG Deshabandu Thennakoon and seven other witnesses and victims of the attacks essential for investigations.

[317] On 9 July, the President fled his official residence in Colombo after large numbers of protesters gathered at Chatham Street near his house, demanding his immediate resignation.

[339] By 10 July, the Presidential Residence had become a tourist attraction with large numbers of Sri Lankans visiting the building to observe the luxuries enjoyed by the president despite the economic crisis.

Opposition MP for Tamil National Alliance M. A. Sumanthiran condemned the government's handling of the protests and called on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to immediately rescind the gazette notification.

[396][397][135] Samagi Jana Balawageya organised a protest march carrying the slogan "The Struggle for Freedom" began on 26 April 2022 from Kandy and was expected to reach Colombo by 1 May 2022.

[408] On 4 April, Nissanka Senadhipathi, a close ally of the Rajapaksas and the chairman of the Avant Garde PMC, allegedly fled to the Maldives with his family members aboard Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL-102.

[411] The court order was issued on the basis of a case filed by political activist Keerthi Tennakoon against Cabraal regarding misappropriation and misuse of public funds which led to the massive economic crisis in Sri Lanka.