East election bill passes in SL Parliament

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 July 2007, 22:35 GMT]
A Bill to conduct local government elections in East was passed in the Parliament with 56 more votes on Thursday, parliamentary sources said. Janake Bandara Tennakkon, the Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils, submitted the Local Government Election Special Provision Act at the Parliament. Ruling and Opposition Parliamentarians took part in the debate.

However, N.Srikantha, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian asked for a voting and the Speaker conceded his request.

68 Parliamentarians from Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sihala Urumaya and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) voted for the Bill and 12 Parliamentarians from TNA including K. Maheswaran, Colombo district Parliamentarian from the Opposition United National Party (UNP) voted against it.

Other members of the UNP did not take part in the voting.