MPs vote against chief justice
Friday 11 January 2013
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EmailSri LankaMPs n voted overwhelmingly to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake today, which the opposition and judges consider illegal.
The motion passed 155-49 with 20 abstentions, including six from the ruling party of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who must now decide whether or not to take action.
Government supporters demonstrated earlier in the day, bussed in to the capital by a state-run company for the protest.
The opposition said that a resolution for the president to give a speech wasn't before the house, so no vote could be taken.
But the speaker - the president's brother - ruled after a 10-minute recess that the vote was constitutional.
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