[Al Jazeera] The Maldivian army has locked down the country's parliament after the opposition vowed to move ahead with a vote against a key ally of President Abdulla Yameen.Politicians defied the ban on Monday, fighting off riot police and scaling metre-high walls to enter the parliament compound.
The opposition was hoping to hold a vote to impeach Speaker Abdulla Maseeh, whom they accuse of ignoring allegations of corruption and rights abuses, before the lockdown came into effect.
They had secured enough support from government defectors to begin impeachment proceedings earlier this month.
But the ruling party dismissed the motion after Yameen announced that four of the defectors had lost their parliamentary seats.