Sri Lanka extends State of Emergency

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2010, 01:15 GMT]
The Sri Lanka’s parliament Wednesday evening adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of 130 votes. 145 parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituent parties voted for the motion. Fifteen parliamentarians from the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Democratic National Alliance (DNA) voted against the motion.

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, D.M. Jayaratne, moved the motion seeking the approval of the House to extend the motion. The opposition whip Mr. John Ameratunga opened the debate on behalf of the opposition. The debate of the motion was taken up along with the debate on the Defense Ministry budget allocation.

The House passed the allocation of the Defense Ministry for the year 2011 by a majority of 133 votes. 145 parliamentarians of the ruling UPFA and its constituents voted in support and 12 voted against.

The State of Emergency is being extended every month by the approval of the parliament since 5th August 2005.