Sri Lanka's parliament Speaker contest ends in tie

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 April 2004, 07:48 GMT]
Second round of voting to elect the sixteenth Speaker of Sri Lanka's Parliament is expected to be held Thursday afternoon as the two candidates contesting for the post of Speaker received 108 votes each in the first round of voting with seven parliamentarians abstaining and with one vote being rejected, parliamentary sources said.

224 parliamentarians attended Thursday opening session of the 225 member-parliament except a Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr. Kingsely Rasanayakam of Batticaloa district, parliamentary media sources said.

Mr.D.E.W.Gunasekara and Mr.W.J.M.Loku Bandara are contesting for the post of Speaker on behalf of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the main opposition United National Front, sources said

The Secretary General of the parliament announced after the first counting that both candidates received 108 votes each and one vote being rejected with seven abstentions, parliamentary sources said.

Seven of the nine Bhikku parliamentarians of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) did not cast their votes as announced by the JHU leadership earlier, JHU sources. Two Bhikku parliamentarians who were earlier reported missing and latter attended the first session of the parliament are said to have exercised their votes, reliable sources said.