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Sri Lanka Holds Partial Parliament Re-Vote

   VOA News 20 April 2010

   Sri   Lankans   had   a   second  chance  to  vote  for  parliamentary
   representatives  Tuesday in two districts where ballots from the April
   8 election were canceled due to fraud.
   Election  officials  said  about 50,000 people were registered for the
   re-vote in Nawalapitiya district and about 1,000 in Trincomalee.
   The  results from the second vote and the final tally from the general
   election  are  expected to be announced Wednesday.  The newly elected
   parliament will hold its first session Thursday.
   Ahead  of  the  sitting of the first post-war parliament, rights group
   Amnesty  International  called  Tuesday  for elected officials to lift
   emergency  laws  that  have  been  in place since the beginning of the
   country's civil war.
   The  group  said  the  emergency  laws  have  allowed  for  decades of
   widespread human rights abuses. Â
   The election results are expected to reinforce the commanding majority
   of  President  Mahinda  Rajapaksa's  United People's Freedom Alliance.
   UPFA  has won 117 of the seats already announced.  Its closest rival,
   the United National Front, secured 46 seats.

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