Dissolved parliament to meet second time on April 6 to extend emergency

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2010, 04:51 GMT]
The dissolved Sri Lanka parliament is to be reconvened for the second time on April 6 to extend the State of Emergency for another month. The dissolved parliament was reconvened last on March 9 to ratify the gazette notification issued by the President Mahinda Rajapakse extending the State of Emergency for another month. According to the constitution, the gazette notification should be ratified within ten days by the parliament.

The general election to elect the new parliament is set for April 8 and the new parliament is to meet ceremonially on April 22.

Hence, President Mahinda Rajapakse is forced to issue another gazette notification extending the State of Emergency by the end of March and that should be ratified within ten days by the parliament, before April 6.