SL parliament extends Emergency for another month

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 17:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Tuesday adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of ninety five votes. 102 parliamentarians voted for the motion and seven against. This was the first extension of the State of Emergency after the defeat of LTTE last month, sources said.

102 MPs voted for the motion. Parliamentarians of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP ), National Freedom Front (NFF), a splinter group of the JVP and the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) voted with the ruling party United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). Seven parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) voted against the motion. However another TNA parliamentarian Sivanathan Kishore is said to have abstained from voting.

Parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) abstained from voting, media sources said.