In Maldives, a bid by the opposition parties to impeach Parliamentary speaker has failed as several MPs were either evicted or walked out from the vote. The government defeated the no confidence motion against the speaker yesterday by 48 votes with none opposing. <br/><br/>The dispute arose when MPs found that the electronic voting system had crashed and the opposition accused the government of tampering with the system. The government proposed to hold the vote by roll call, but the opposition objected, saying it would be intimidating and expose dissident MPs within President Yameen's party, led by his half-brother and former ruler Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.<br/><br/>The deputy speaker ordered some protesting opposition lawmakers evicted and those remaining also left in protest. The development came after Maumoon, the Maldives' first democratically elected leader Mohamed Nasheed and two other parties signed an agreement last week to try to restore democracy in the country. These parties claimed that the entire process was in violation of parliament's mandate and cannot be deemed valid. A press statement issued by them said, military removed opposing MPs, barred the public, NGOs and media.