2nd Lead (Adds details)

Emergency rule in Sri Lanka extended

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2005, 07:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday evening adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of sixty-one votes. Eighty parliamentarians of the ruling party and the main opposition UNP voted for the motion. Nineteen MPs voted against. This is the second extension of the State of Emergency which was reintroduced August 13 following the killing of Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar on August 12 night, parliamentary sources said.

Ruling UPFA members, JVP members, several MPs of UNP and JHU voted for the extension.

Parliamentarians of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) abstained from voting. CWC parliamentarians voted with the government last month when the first extension was adopted.

Mr.T.Maheswaran of the UNP, Mr.Mano Ganesan of the Western Province Peoples Front and Mr.V.Radhakrishnan of Upcountry Peoples Front voted against the extension motion with sixteen Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, sources said.

Wickremanayake moved the motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month till November 13 when the parliament met Tuesday.

Mr.Mahinda Smarasinghe, Chief Whip of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), said the State of Emergency should not be extended beyond November 13.

UNP voted for the extension till 13 November on the condition that the State of Emergency should not be in force after the above date, he stressed.

JVP and JHU parliamentarians were present in parliament when the debate commenced Tuesday noon.