Colombo, Jul 13 (IANS): Sri Lanka's Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has announced that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will make arrangements to send his official letter of resignation on Wednesday.

The Speaker said Rajapaksa, who is out of the country, had called him and told him he would resign on Wednesday as previously promised on Saturday, the BBC reported.

The letter of resignation would pave the way for Sri Lanka to trigger a succession plan, by allowing an interim President to step in for up to 30 days before MPs vote to elect a new leader.

Meanwhile, a second state television broadcast station has now gone off air in the island nation, the BBC reported.

The news comes less than an hour after the largest national broadcaster, Rupavahini, suspended operations after protesters entered the Prime Minister's office. Officials say engineers shut the channel down as thousands of protesters entered the state television office.