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Central, Uva PCs terms ending
The period of office of the Central and Uva Provincial Councils are due to end on May 25 and May 26 respectively.

The last session of the Central Provincial Council controlled by the UNF is scheduled for April 22, according to Council Secretary M. Karunadasa. The PA- controlled Uva Provincial Council's final session is also due to be held on April 22 , according to its Secretary Rohana Dissanayake.

Shock hits 17 in Kandy
Seventeen people suffered from shock and were admitted to Kandy hospital when a live wire fell onto a railing as they queued up to pay homage to the Sacred Tooth Relic at the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy yesterday, police said.

Important business for the new Parliament
The first business of the new Parliament will be the election of the Speaker. Any member who wishes to can propose a member for election to the post and this has to be seconded by another MP.

If only the name of one person is proposed and seconded, then the Secretary-General of Parliament will declare the member elected as Speaker. However, if names of more than one person were proposed and seconded, a vote will be taken. Each member is given a ballot paper on which they write the name of their choice and once the ballot papers are collected and counted, the Secretary General will announce the results.

Following the election of the Speaker, a Deputy Speaker and a Deputy Chairman of Committees will also be elected using the same procedure as that of the election of the Speaker, except that their election will be conducted by the Speaker.

They were there before
There are still a few of the older generation of politicians who have been re elected to Parliament this year. Among those are Alick Aluvihare who first entered parliament in 1961 and M.H. Mohamed in 1965. Mr. Aluvihare was a former Minister of Public Administration while Mr. Mohamed was the Speaker of the ninth Parliament.

The present Minister of Posts D.M. Jayaratne who entered Parliament in 1970 from the Gampola electorate is also among some of the senior members in the legislature. There are also several MPs who entered the legislature for the first time in 1977, they include former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, Amara Piyaseeli Ratnayake, and W.J.M. Lokubandara.

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