Paththini Film and parliament votes

Paththini Film and parliament votes

The premier show of the film 'Paththini' was screened yesterday in Colombo and the film was a production of Mrs. Milina Sumathipala. Her son the Deputy Speaker, his comrades comprising MPs of parliament and a number of Ministers had been invited on this occasion.

Since the Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had attended this occasion after leaving parliament, parliamentary proceedings were carried out with Mr. Lucky Jayawardena taking the Chair.

Several MPs of the government party had been away to watch the film and for other purposes too towards the final stages of the 55 million Supplementary Estimate debate. MP Mr. Anura Kumara on noticing the prevailing situation said that a vote should be taken to approve this Estimate. On that occasion approval was granted by the Chair and Mr. Lucky Jayawardena who was in the Chair notified that there were 33 votes for and 31 votes against in that instance. However, those of Mahinda's faction staged a protest saying that that figure was incorrect. Saying that the results cannot be accepted, MPs of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and MPs of the Joint Opposition entered the parliament General Secretary's room and had started perusing the CCTV cameras there. Having observed footage of 6 cameras they had then proceeded to the Working Committee room downstairs and had once again inspected the results on a wide screen there.

Subsequently what the Joint Opposition said was that 31 votes have been secured both for and against alike and that what was announced at the Chair were wrong figures. A dialogue ensued about this even today (6) in parliament and what the Leader of the House, Mr. Kiriella had said was that since a decision has been announced, a repeat voting session is not necessary. Whatever it is, since there is an allegation that injustice has been done, the Leader of the House said that a committee would be appointed to carry out an investigation on the matter.