04-23-2004, 11:21 AM
<span style='color:red'>Sri Lanka president's party suffers major blow at first test
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W.J.M. Lokubandara votes for the election of the speaker of the Sri Lankan parliament.
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga suffered a major blow when her candidate lost the speaker's job in the first test for her minority government during an unruly vote in parliament.
Parliamentary Secretary General Priyani Wijesekera said the main opposition candidate won the top job in the 225-member assembly by one vote in an election held up by ruling party legislators who at one point grabbed the ballot box.
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"I thank both sides of the house," the new speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara said soon after his election to applause from the opposition and silence from the government benches.
Government legislators threw file covers and paper missiles at a Buddhist monk legislator who voted for the opposition candidate, thus ensuring his victory despite ruling party attempts to engineer defections.
Kumaratunga's Freedom Alliance has 105 seats, eight short of a simple majority.
The monks have nine seats in the assembly and had vowed to remain neutral. However, two of the nine monks defected to Kumaratunga's party Thursday and voted for her candidate.
The move prompted two monks from the main group of the all-clergy National Heritage Party to vote for the opposition, in a move they said neutralised the effect of the move by the two rebel monks.
"We are surprised by the unruly behaviour of the government," Buddhist monk Athuraliya Ratana told the assembly after the election. "We had said we will support the good work of the government, but now we will have to reconsider."
Opposition candidate Lokubandara secured 110 votes against the 109 mustered by Kumaratunga's leftist Freedom Alliance candidate D.E.W. Gunasekara at the third round of balloting.
The first round ended in a tie, with both candidates getting 108 each while one ballot paper was rejected.
The second round was called off after government legislators grabbed the ballot box and took turns sitting on it for 50 minutes until a third round was called.
A parliamentary official told AFP the assembly had never seen such unruly behaviour at an election of a speaker. The nine-hour vote was the longest for a speaker since independence from Britain in 1948.
The speaker put off till May 18 the election of a deputy speaker and a chairman of committees.
The defeat is a major blow to Kumaratunga after lobbying minority parties to secure their support for Gunasekara, who could have emerged as Sri Lanka's first communist speaker of parliament -- the 13th since independence.
Analysts said the legislative agenda of the government would now be at the mercy of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) of former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, who expressed disgust at the unruly scenes in the assembly.
"I was shocked by what happened during the vote," Wickremesinghe said, adding the opposition would not be bullied by the government of his arch-rival Kumaratunga.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, a moderate in the government, congratulated the new speaker and said he expected the new head of parliament to remain neutral.
Failure to instal Kumaratunga's chosen speaker could spell the end for her plans for governmental reform that would allow her to seek a third term when her tenure ends in December 2005.
"If the government has to struggle so much to have a speaker elected and eventually fails, then it means bad news for the country," a parliamentary official said.
Thursday's vote underscored the political instability following the April 2 parliamentary election Kumaratunga called four years ahead of schedule.
Kumaratunga went before the electorate after forging an alliance with the leftist JVP -- or People's Liberation Front -- and won 105 seats, eight short to have an absolute majority.</span>
- AFP
Thanks channelnewsasia.com & tamileelamnews.com
<img src='http://www.channelnewsasia.com/imagegallery/store/AFP/SGE_JOV23_220404181637_00_181x245.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>
W.J.M. Lokubandara votes for the election of the speaker of the Sri Lankan parliament.
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga suffered a major blow when her candidate lost the speaker's job in the first test for her minority government during an unruly vote in parliament.
Parliamentary Secretary General Priyani Wijesekera said the main opposition candidate won the top job in the 225-member assembly by one vote in an election held up by ruling party legislators who at one point grabbed the ballot box.
Advertisement
"I thank both sides of the house," the new speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara said soon after his election to applause from the opposition and silence from the government benches.
Government legislators threw file covers and paper missiles at a Buddhist monk legislator who voted for the opposition candidate, thus ensuring his victory despite ruling party attempts to engineer defections.
Kumaratunga's Freedom Alliance has 105 seats, eight short of a simple majority.
The monks have nine seats in the assembly and had vowed to remain neutral. However, two of the nine monks defected to Kumaratunga's party Thursday and voted for her candidate.
The move prompted two monks from the main group of the all-clergy National Heritage Party to vote for the opposition, in a move they said neutralised the effect of the move by the two rebel monks.
"We are surprised by the unruly behaviour of the government," Buddhist monk Athuraliya Ratana told the assembly after the election. "We had said we will support the good work of the government, but now we will have to reconsider."
Opposition candidate Lokubandara secured 110 votes against the 109 mustered by Kumaratunga's leftist Freedom Alliance candidate D.E.W. Gunasekara at the third round of balloting.
The first round ended in a tie, with both candidates getting 108 each while one ballot paper was rejected.
The second round was called off after government legislators grabbed the ballot box and took turns sitting on it for 50 minutes until a third round was called.
A parliamentary official told AFP the assembly had never seen such unruly behaviour at an election of a speaker. The nine-hour vote was the longest for a speaker since independence from Britain in 1948.
The speaker put off till May 18 the election of a deputy speaker and a chairman of committees.
The defeat is a major blow to Kumaratunga after lobbying minority parties to secure their support for Gunasekara, who could have emerged as Sri Lanka's first communist speaker of parliament -- the 13th since independence.
Analysts said the legislative agenda of the government would now be at the mercy of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) of former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, who expressed disgust at the unruly scenes in the assembly.
"I was shocked by what happened during the vote," Wickremesinghe said, adding the opposition would not be bullied by the government of his arch-rival Kumaratunga.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, a moderate in the government, congratulated the new speaker and said he expected the new head of parliament to remain neutral.
Failure to instal Kumaratunga's chosen speaker could spell the end for her plans for governmental reform that would allow her to seek a third term when her tenure ends in December 2005.
"If the government has to struggle so much to have a speaker elected and eventually fails, then it means bad news for the country," a parliamentary official said.
Thursday's vote underscored the political instability following the April 2 parliamentary election Kumaratunga called four years ahead of schedule.
Kumaratunga went before the electorate after forging an alliance with the leftist JVP -- or People's Liberation Front -- and won 105 seats, eight short to have an absolute majority.</span>
- AFP
Thanks channelnewsasia.com & tamileelamnews.com
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