TNA parliamentarians vote against Foreign Ministry votes

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2004, 16:00 GMT]
Nineteen parliamentarians 17 Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and 2 United National Party (UNP) voted against the votes of the Foreign Ministry when it was put to division Friday after a committee stage debate in parliament Friday. However the Foreign Ministry votes was passed with a majority of 93 votes, 112 voted for it, parliamentary sources said.

The main opposition UNP and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by Mr.Rauff Hakim abstained from voting. But Mr.T.Maheswaran, a UNP Tamil MP and Mr.P.Radhakirishnan, member of the Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) voted against the votes with TNA parliamentarians, sources further said.

Parliamentarians of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), dissident SLMC, Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and all the constituents of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance government voted for the votes, parliamentary sources said.

Later Mr.Maheswaran said he defied his party order and voted against the foreign ministry allocation.