Six new Parliamentarians sworn in

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2004, 00:32 GMT]
Six new parliamentarians were sworn in when the fifth session of the Sri Lanka's thirteenth parliament began Tuesday morning at 10 a.m with Speaker Mr.W.J.M.Lokkubandara in the chair. Three of the parliamentarians were from the ruling minority United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the rest were from the main opposition United National Front (UNF), parliamentary sources said.

Of the three of the UPFA parliamentarians Messrs Nirmal Kotelawala and M.R.Mithrapala are from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Mr.M.L.Mussamil is from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Both political parties are constituent partners of UPFA.

Of the three United National Front (UNF) parliamentarians Messrs Basheer Segu Dawood and M.Nijamudeen are from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Mr.Myown Mustapha is from the United National Party (UNP).

Nirmal Kotelawala and M.R.Mithrapala were appointed as parliamentarians filling the vacancies created by the resignations of Reginald Cooray and Mahipala Heart respectively. Mr. Reginald Cooray and Mr. Mahipala Heart resigned their seats to contest the Provincial Council election. Both were last week appointed Chief Ministers of the Western Provincial Council and Sabragamuwa Provincial Council, having won the PC election, sources said.

The UNP appointed Mr.Myown Mustapha as its national list parliamentarian to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Mr.Ali Zahir Mowlana. Mr. Mowlana resigned the seat following the revelation of his association with renegade LTTE commander Karuna.

Members of the public, except relatives of new parliamentarians, were not allowed to the public gallery and the normally crowded gallery remained empty, sources said.