Three important Parliament positions to be filled this week

• Govt. likely to name Leader of House, Chief Govt. Whip on Thursday
• UNP meeting same day to nominate Chief Opposition Whip
• Post-election seating arrangements will see Welgama seated in Opp. and Rathana Thera and Senanayake in Govt.

By Chandani Kirinde

Three important Parliament positions will be filled this week as arrangements get underway for the commencement of the new session of the Legislature on Friday.

The UNP Parliamentary Group meeting will be held on Thursday to nominate a person to the post of Chief Opposition Whip, party sources said.

The meeting will be presided over by MP Sajith Premadasa who has been named the Leader of the Opposition.

Meanwhile the post of Leader of the House and Chief Government Whip too remain to be filled.

Official sources said that the Government was s likely to name persons to these two posts on Thursday before the ceremonial opening of Parliament on Friday.

Meanwhile new seating arrangements in Parliament since the change in Government will see UPFA MP Kumar Welgama seated in the Opposition benches while UNP National List MP Rathana Thera will sit on the Government side along with another UNP MP, Wasantha Senanayake.

Welgama has been allocated a seat in the second row of the Opposition benches on his request, Parliamentary officials said, while the Thera and Senanayake have been given seats on the ruling party side on their request.

UNP MP Sajith Premadasa has been allocated the Leader of the Opposition seat while former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be seated to his left. All party leaders in Parliament have also been given front row seats.

The ruling UPFA has 96 seats in Parliament, hence 10 Opposition members will be seated on the Government side as 106 MPs can be seated on each side of the House. The seats are allocated on the basis of seniority except in the event the MPs are ministers, State ministers or deputy ministers.