Kumaratunga suffers a setback - Sri Lanka

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AP , COLOMBO
Saturday, Apr 24, 2004,Page 5

In a major political setback, President Chandrika Kumaratunga's alliance has lost a crucial parliamentary vote, failing to get its candidate into the powerful speaker's post.

W.J.M. Lokubandara, a former justice minister and member of the main opposition party, narrowly won the post by a vote of 110 to 109. His victory over Dew Gunesekara late Thursday came only after three separate votes in the legislature, and near-pandemonium as lawmakers argued about parliamentary procedure in a marathon nine-and-a-half hour session.

The loss was sure to complicate the already-fractured political scene in Sri Lanka, where Kumaratunga's party heads a ruling coalition that remains bitterly at odds with the main opposition led by her nemesis, former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Their political rivalry has dominated Sri Lankan politics for years, and has complicated attempts to seek a resolution of the bitter civil war that has devastated much of the island.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/04/24/2003137903

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1. Good news.

Kumaratunga's been doing everything she can to sabotage
the peace negotiations.