Speaker Karu Jayasuriya announced that the Parliament will reconvene on at 1.30 p.m. on November 27.

Parliament had convened at 10.30 a.m. this morning to decide on the appointing of members to Select Committee.

Prior to that, a party leaders’ meeting was held at the Parliamentary Complex at 9.00 a.m. to discuss the agenda and the appointing of members to the Select Committee.

However, the meeting had ended without a consensus being reached on the matter of the composition of the committee.

When the Parliamentary session commenced, the Speaker announced that committee will be comprised of 5 members each from the United National Front and United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) while one member each will be represented by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

However, the Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena, speaking afterwards, stated that they object and will not accept the decision as the governing party should be allocated a majority of members in the committee.

Minister Wimal Weerawansa also addressed the parliament and voiced their disapproval regarding the matter while MPs of the government subsequently staged a walkout in protest.

The government members walked out of the Chamber in unison as the Speaker announced the vote on the composition of the committee.

After the vote was taken electronically, the Speaker informed the House that 121 MPs voted in favour of the composition of the Parliament Select Committee.

MPs of the governing party who had staged a walkout were absent during the vote.

A total of 116 members had voted electronically while another 4 MPs had voted by roll call due to technical issues.

The Speaker then announced that the Parliament would reconvene on November 27 and 28.