Sri Lankan legislators to pick new president but no deal on PM

People queue up to enter the office of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa three days after it was stormed by anti government protesters in Colombo, Sri Lanka (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

Sri Lanka’s leaders have agreed that legislators will elect a new president next week but struggled to decide on the make-up of a new government to lead the bankrupt country out of an economic and political collapse.

Facing severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine, protesters on Saturday stormed embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s home, his seaside office and the official residence of his prime minister in the most dramatic day of a three-month crisis.