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New Lanka government loses Speaker's election
The new UPFA government has lost the first-ever trial of strength, reports PK Balachanddran.
The new United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government in Sri Lanka lost the first-ever trial of strength in parliament when its candidate for the post of Speaker was defeated in the voting held on Thursday.
The opposition's candidate, WJM Lokubandara, secured one vote more than the ruling party's candidate, Dew Gunasekara, and became the Speaker of the 13th parliament. Lokubandara of the United National Front (UNF) got 110 votes while Gunasekara got 109. There were five abstentions.
One seat had not been gazetted. To begin with itself, the government side was seven short of a simple majority, with only 106 committed supporters in a house of 224 members (one seat was yet to be gazetted). But it was hoping to get its candidate elected as Speaker with the support of the 9 members of the Buddhist monks' party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU).But days before the election, the JHU said that it would abstain. This made UPFA split the JHU.
When the ballot was taken, both Gunasekara and Lokubandara got 108 votes each. One vote was spoilt. The JHU abstained, but two of its members had broken ranks and voted for Gunasekara. Because of the tie, a second ballot was taken.
But the procedure became very contentious as some of the UNF MPs were violating the secrecy of the ballot. UPFA MPs protested vociferously and sat on a dharna in the well of a house. This led to the cancellation of the second ballot and a third one was taken at 5 pm.
In this, the JHU hit back at the UPFA by making two of its MPs vote for the opposition. This enabled the opposition to get one more vote than the ruling party. The Secretary General of the JHU, Tilak Karunaratne, told Hindustan Times that the party had to ask two of its MPs to vote for the opposition because the UPFA had "played dirty."
The Speaker's election shows how fragile the UPFA government is. Though government is safe now, it may have to go out of office if a money bill presented by it is defeated.
