Electronic vote in House today

Uditha Kumarasinghe, Rajmi Manatunga and Irangika Range

KOTTE: Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara informed Parliament yesterday that the electronic voting and counting system will be used for the vote on the five Bills to be presented in Parliament today (6th).

Accordingly, the system established in 2001 as part of the Parliament electronic sound system will be used to tally the votes on two Amendments to the Finance Act, the Regional Infrastructure Development Levy (Amendment) Bill, the Excise (Special Provisions) (Amendment) Bill and the Special Commodity Levy Bill.

It will be the second time the system will be used to count votes since it was imported from Germany at a cost of Rs. 56 million and set up in the chambers.

According to Parliament sources, the system was tried the same year without success as a result of the Members’ failure to mark their vote correctly.

With the new electronic system, a Parliamentarian could cast his/ her vote by pressing two buttons installed on his/her table. Once all MPs have voted the system will release the results within 20 seconds indicating the number and the names of members who voted for and against the Bill respectively.

Both the Government and the Opposition are reported to have informed all their members to be present when the crucial vote takes place today.