Piyasena Gamage sworn in as a Parliamentarian

Piyasena Gamage has been sworn in as a Galle District Parliamentarian.

MP Gamage took oath before Speaker of House Karu Jayasuriya this morning and took his seat in the government’s side in Parliament.

Piyasena Gamage obtained 47,247 preferential votes at the 2015 General Election.

The Parliament post was left vacant following the removal of Geetha Kumarasinghe owing to her holding dual citizenship.

Chairman of the Elections Commission Mahinda Deshapriya and two other officials of the Commission today signed the gazette notification in this regard.

The gazette states Geetha Kumarasinghe’s seat in Parliament fell vacant following a verdict announced by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

The Appeals Court in May ruled that Kumarasinghe cannot hold a Parliament post due to her dual citizenship while the Supreme Court recently upheld the verdict.

The Appeals Court determined that Kumarasinghe cannot hold the post according to Article 91 of the Constitution.

Kumarasinghe filed a petition challenging the verdict of the Appeals Court at the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court however upheld the verdict of the Appeals Court.

Geetha Kumarasinghe was elected to Parliament following the General Election held on the 17th of August 2015 after contesting under the United People’s Freedom Alliance ticket in the Galle District and obtained 63,955 votes.

Former Minister Piyasena Gamage received the next highest votes in the list from the Galle District