Special Operations Bill passed after Senate deadlock

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Con­cerns are mount­ing over the prece­dent that could be es­tab­lished if Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark’s use of his cast­ing vote to pass the Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill be­comes ac­cept­ed prac­tice when­ev­er Sen­ate votes are tied.

For­mer house speak­er Nizam Mo­hammed weighed in on the is­sue yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing Mark’s de­ci­sion to cast the de­cid­ing vote af­ter Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tors and a com­bined Op­po­si­tion and In­de­pen­dent bloc were dead­locked 15-15 on the bill. Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tors, who chal­lenged Mark’s ac­tion, sub­se­quent­ly walked out of the Sen­ate cham­ber.