The Speaker of Sri Lanka’s parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has told the BBC World Service Newshour programme that a new cross-party coalition government must be formed within a week of the president officially stepping down.

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, a member of the president’s governing party, also mostly blamed Covid-19 for the country’s economic woes.

“The Covid pandemic has created havoc in the country economically so we had to spend all our money on vaccinations,” he said according to the BBC. (NewsWire)