Sri Lanka It's Happening

April 22, 2004

The parliament has been in session for well over four hours now. They MPs have still not been able to decide on a speaker.

It's not because there arn't any takers, the two biggest parties in the parliament (the UPFA and UNP) have both put up a candiate, the monks suggested that one of their members should be made speaker but no one seems to be listening to them (even though they have the deciding vote).

News reports said that a ballot had been held to elect the speaker. It ended amidst a lot of shouting, fist waving in a tie. Though the monks promised not to vote for either of the candidates it seems that two of them have infact voted.

The JHU - the party of the buddhist monks ague that these two parliamentarians have been 'hijacked' by the UPFA.

The second round of voting has been temporarily halted to give both sides a chance to shake their fists again.

Posted by raditha at April 22, 2004 9:22 AM