Sri Lanka extends State of Emergency

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2007, 19:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Thursday adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of 126 votes. 141 parliamentarians from the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituent parties Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) voted for the motion. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) also voted with the government, parliamentary sources said.

Mano Ganeshan from the Western Peoples Front (WPF) and T.Maheswaran from the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and thirteen parliamentarians from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) voted against the motion. Other parliamentarians of the UNP who were present at that time of voting abstained, parliamentary sources said.

The State of Emergency has been extended every month since August 12, 2005