Municipal councilors of Sri Lanka’s financial capital Colombo have selected Vraîe Cally Balthazaar as the city’s mayor through a secret ballot.
After initial protests about whether the ballot should be secret or open, the unanimous decision was made for a secret vote.
Balthazaar received 61 votes, while the opposition candidate Mohammed Riza Zarook received 54 votes. Of the total 117 votes, 2 were rejected.
The council met on Monday (Jun16) for the first time, after months of behind the scenes wrangling for a majority, as the May 6 local government elections gave no clear majority to any one party.
The ruling National People’s Power got the most number of seats, 48, out of 117 seats in the election, but opposition members outweighed this number, preventing the NPP from being independently able to appoint a mayor.
Non-party independent councilors tipped the balance.