P’ment to celebrate 70 years with special sitting on 3 Oct.

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

A special ceremonial parliamentary sitting will be held on 3 October at 2.30pm to mark the 70th anniversary of the first Parliament of Sri Lanka.

According to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, the Committee on Parliamentary Business reached this decision Thursday evening.

The Parliament of Ceylon met for the first time on 14 October 1947 with Sir Alfred Francis Molamure presiding as Speaker. Membership was determined at the 19-day-long General Election held between 23 August and 20 September 1947. The duration of the first Parliament was limited to four years and five months and was dissolved on 8 April 1952. 

The first session of the first Parliament was opened by Sir Henry Monek-Mason Moore, Governor of Ceylon. The second session, the first after independence, was opened by the Duke of Gloucester on 10 February 1948. The third session was summoned on 12 July 1949 with Lord Soulbury’s first speech from the Throne to both Houses of Parliament after he was appointed Governor-General. The fourth and the fifth sessions of the first Parliament was summoned on 20 June 1950 and 20June 1951 respectively.

The United National Party, Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Bolshevik Leninist Party, Communist Party, Labour Party, All Ceylon Tamil Congress, Ceylon Indian Congress, United Lanka Congress, Swaraj Party, and a group of independents contested for the 1947 elections for 95 seats. Winning 39.81% of the total votes with 751,432 votes, the United National Party won 42 seats, the majority, and formed a government selecting D. S. Senanayake as the country’s first Prime Minister. Florence Senanayake, Kusumsiri Gunawardena, and Tamara Kumari Illangaratne were the first female members of the first Parliament.