Athuraliye Rathana Thero to be sworn in tomorrow

The Venerable Athuraliye Rathana Thero will be sworn in as a Member of Parliament for the 9th Parliament tomorrow (05), Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake said.

The name of the Venerable Athuraliye Rathana Thero was gazetted by the National Election Commission to fill the National List Parliament seat won by Our Power of People Party (Ape Janabala Party) at the last General Election.

The Our Power of People Party secured 67,758 votes in the Parliamentary Election held in August and was allocated one National List seat in Parliament.

Initially, the party had decided to nominate General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) Venerable?Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thero?to the National List.

Thereafter, the party faced a crisis after its General Secretary Venerable Vadinagala Wimalatissa Thero was reported missing a day prior to submitting the nomination paper.

As the Party had failed to reach a common consensus since the incident, a member was not nominated to the Our Power of People Party National List Parliament seat.

However, the Election Commission later approved the nomination of the leader of Our Power of People Party, the Venerable Athuraliye Rathana Thero to fill the National List seat.

Rathana Thero, who was first elected to the Parliament from the Kalutara District in 2004 , representing the Jathika Hela Urumaya, was elected to the 7th Parliament from the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in 2010, representing the Gampaha District.

Rathana Thero, who represented the United National Party (UNP) in the 8th Parliament as a National List Member of Parliament in 2015, will be representing Parliament for the fourth time. (Colombo Gazette)