Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajpaksha is all set to deliver his inaugural speech to Parliament on January 3 during a ceremonial sitting before the new session commences later that day.
Gotabaya is the first Sri Lankan President to be elected to office without having served as an MP prior to his election in the November 16 polls, the Daily Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and the Secretary-General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayaka will welcome the President when he arrives for the ceremonial sitting of the Legislature which will be followed by hoisting of the national flag. This will be followed by the 21-gun salute.
The President will chair the inaugural session which will commence at 10 am where he will deliver the statement of the new government’s policy and will suspend the House thereafter.
The first-ever session of the Sri Lankan Parliament was held on October 14, 1947. It was ceremonially opened and presided over by Governor Henry Monck-Mason Moore.
Rajapaksa is the younger brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former president who presided in 2005 to 2015.
The 70-year-old Rajapaksa, had a 49.6 per cent share of the vote with close to six million ballots counted.
Rajapaksa conducted a nationalist campaign with a promise of security and a vow to crush religious extremism in the Buddhist-majority country following the April 21 suicide bomb attacks blamed on a homegrown terror group.
The first-ever session of the Sri Lankan Parliament was held on October 14, 1947. It was ceremonially opened and presided over by Governor Henry Monck-Mason Moore, where he delivered the throne speech, which was debated by Parliament and passed by a vote of thanks, the Daily Financial Times reported.
The third session of the second Parliament was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on April 12, 1954.