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WITH TWO JHU MONKS VOTING WITH LTTE BACKED TNA LOKUBANDARA WINS SPEAKERS POSITION IN LANKA’S PARLIAMENT
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Former Sri Lankan labor minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, right, congratulates newly elected speaker of the Sri Lankan parliament W.J.M. Lokubandara (photo by Eranga Jayawardena/AP)
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

April 23, 09.00 AM: With the support of ironic forces combined together like the Tamil Tigers backed Members of Parliament and the Buddhist Monk MP’s of the Jathika Hela Urumaya Opposition candidate W.J.M.Lokubandara became the Speaker of Sri Lanka’s Parliament giving the new minority government of the country a crushing blow.

With two of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) monks voting with the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE) backed Tamil MP’s , the opposition candidate W.J.M.Lokubandara won the prestigious Speaker’s post of Sri Lanka parliament by obtaining 110 votes .against his rival and government’s nominee D.E.W. Gunasekera who obtained 109 votes in an election marred by unprecedented pandemonium in the island republic’s legislature.

In the final round of voting , after a brief interval until the Government Printer printed fresh ballot papers to be used at the elections since the Secretary General had run out of them due to so many rounds of elections, two of the Jathika Hela Urumaya Buddhist monks changed their view of not voting at this election and voted with the LTTE backed Tamil National Alliance MP’s to make their favorite candidate the country’s sixteenth Speaker. Omalpe Sobhitha Thero and Athuraliye Rathana Thero have been identified as the two bhikku MP’s who put their last minute rescue to save the UNP candidates working together with the LTTE backed Tamil MP’s. It is believed that they threw in their support with the consent of other Bhikku MP’s who maintained their earlier stance of not voting..

Janatha Vimuthi Peramuna’s Wimal Weerawansa speaking on the floor of the Hose at the conclusion of the election said it was an unholy alliance of ali-koti-bhikku and Muslims who won the day.

R.Sampanthan , the leader of the TNA backed by Tamil Tigers congratulating the new Speaker said they would form the Eelam in the same manner through the parliament.

For the first time in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary history, in the first round the voting for the election of Speaker ended with both the opposition candidate W.J.M.Lokubandara and government candidate Dew Gunasekera receiving 108, an equal number of votes each, creating ominous signs for the minority government of the United People’s Freedom Alliance(UPFA)

Since there was no clear indication of the will of the parliament the members went into a second round of voting. Latest reports said pandemonium reigned in the parliament during the second voting when a lady UNP parliamentarian showed her secret ballot to candidate Lokubandara before casting it into the ballot box. The second round of voting took effect at 2.30 p.m. on Thursday. The pandemonium continued since it was pointed out that the woman UNP MP’s showing of the secret ballot to Lokubandara was against the standing orders of the parliament. By this time the fourth round of voting had arrived and the Secretary General of the Parliament was informed that the ballot papers for the parliamentarians to vote had run out. The election was postponed until a new set of ballot papers were printed by the Government Printer. After it was announced that the showing of the secret ballot was against the standing orders the government MP’s who were protesting in the well went back to their seats.

Former Member of Parliament Jinadasa Niyathapala told this correspondent that the lack of determination on the part of the newly elected Buddhist monk parliamentarians to oppose the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led to this stalemate. “It was amazing that they were now rubbing shoulders with the Tiger elements,” he said.

The LTTE backed Tamil National Alliance , Rauf Hakeem led Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and Arumugam Thondaman led CWC teamed up with Ranil Wickremesinghe led United National Party to support the UNP candidate W.J.M. Lokubandara, before the Jathika Hela Urumaya monks joined them while all government parliamentarians and two rebel Jathika Hela Urumaya parliamentarians Venerable Aparekke Pugngnananda and Venerable Kathaluwe Rathanseeha voted with the government, in this secret ballot election insiders said.

The parliamentary leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya Venerable Uduwe Dhammaloka had earlier announced that they would not help either of the candidates

The Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Kingsley Rasanayakam who is allegedly under death threats of the LTTE for his sympathy for the renegade LTTE commander Col Karuna did not attend the parliament to vote..

The Secretary General of the Parliament announced each candidate received 108 votes each with seven abstentions with one vote being rejected during the first round of voting.

The former Speaker Joseph Michael Perera proposed the name of W.J.M. Lokubandara and was seconded by Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem.

The Prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa proposed the name of D.E.W.Gunasekera and Wimal Weerawansa of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna seconded the name of him.

Long before the election of Buddhist monks to the parliament , many opponents alleged that many monks were actually financed by the UNP sources to defeat the Freedom Alliance of the SLFP and JVP. But the monks rejected the allegation.

( go2lanka.com)