Sri Lanka, June 16 -- The newly elected Colombo Municipal Council convened for its inaugural session this morning (June 16) at the Town Hall following the Local Government (LG) elections held on May 6.

The election of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor was scheduled as the first item on the agenda.

As no party has secured an outright majority at the election, both the National People's Power (NPP) and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) have in recent days claimed they have garnered the support of other factions to elect their preferred mayoral candidate.

During the meeting, the NPP nominated Vraie Cally Balthazaar as its candidate for Mayor, while the SJB proposed Riza Zarook.

A tense situation arose during the proceedings, with some councillor...