Speaker decides vote on impeachment in order:
Chief justice impeached with two thirds majority
Vote far exceeds necessary simple majority:
Sandasen Marasinghe and Disna Mudalige
Parliament yesterday passed the impeachment resolution for the
removal of Chief Justice Dr Shirani Bandaranayake, the first ever
impeachment motion passed against a Chief Justice in Sri Lanka, with a
two-thirds majority.
Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa said the resolution will be directed to
President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
At the conclusion of the impeachment debate in Parliament around 8
pm, the vote was taken by the Speaker, and by 155 votes to 49, the House
decided to impeach the Chief Justice last evening. The vote was taken
around 8.00 pm, after the Speaker conveyed his decision following a 10
minute break at around 7.40 pm, that since the address for impeachment
could be made by the President and the provisions for that are contained
in parliamentary procedure, the vote on the impeachment could take
place.
Accordingly, thereafter the names of MPs were called individually,
beginning with the Prime Minister, and the Speaker announced the result
of the vote. Celebratory firecracker reports were heard around the city,
when the news was announced.
The impeachment motion signed by 117 Members of Parliament was
ratified by 155 members in favour while 49 members voted against. Twenty
members were not present at the time the vote was taken.
Ministers DEW Gunasekara, Professor Tissa Vitharana and Chandrasiri
Gajadeera were not present at the time of voting while V G Padmasiri of
the LSSP voted in favour.
UNP and TNA members were not present in the House.
The impeachment motion included 14 charges against the Chief Justice.
It was handed over to the Speaker on November 1, 2012 and included in
the Parliament Order Paper on November 6.
Speaker Rajapaksa appointed the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC)
with Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa as the chairman. The
PSC included 11 members of which seven were government members. Two of
the rest were from the UNP wile the DNA and the TNA each, were
represented by one member. Chief Justice Dr Bandaranayke appeared before
the PSC on November 23. She walked out of the PSC with her counsel on
December 6. Opposition members of the PSC walked out of the
investigation on December 7. The investigations continued as the quorum
of the PSC remained.
The PSC investigated only five charges of the impeachment motion. The
Chief Justice was found guilty of three charges. The report was
presented before Parliament on December 8. After a lapse of one month
from the presentation of the PSC report in Parliament, the PSC report
was taken up for debate on January 10. The vote was taken yesterday
evening after the completion of two days of debate. Leader of the House
and Irrigation and Water Resources Management Minister Nimal Siripala de
Silva asked for the division by name. The vote was taken at 7.40pm and
lasted until 8pm. |