President Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia looks certain to face an impeachment hearing within weeks following a fiery debate on his future in parliament yesterday.
Police fired warning shots as supporters of the embattled President broke into the grounds of parliament as legislators debated the controversial impeachment issue.
Earlier, there were concerns about a possible serious escalation of violence on the streets of Jakarta. However, tension eased when 5,000 pro-Wahid protesters who had marched to the parliament grounds began to disperse after dusk. Plastic barricades blocked the protesters from reaching the parliament building.
The protesters called on the President to dissolve parliament. If such a decree was issued, Mr Wahid could call elections to stave off impeachment.
The threat of violence appears to be one of the last options left to the President in his desperate bid to cling to power. Earlier this week he threatened to declare a state of emergency giving him the power to dissolve parliament.
A spokesman for the President said he would not resign. Asked about threats by Mr Wahid to declare a state of emergency, he said: "The president will wait until the process in parliament is concluded."
Police yesterday issued a 6 p.m. deadline to the 5,000 Wahid supporters, waving banners and carrying sticks, to disperse from outside the gates of the heavily defended parliament.
Members of parliament took two previous censures a step further and voted to ask the national assembly to convene a special session to demand Mr Wahid to account for his rule.
A head count showed that 365 members of the People's Representative Council (DPR) voted for the special session, four were against and 39 abstained.
The vote was not attended by members of Mr Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB) who walked out as the vote was called.
Mr Akbar Tanjung, the House Speaker, said that the decision of the DPR would be sent to the People's Consultative Assembly today.
The session came at a particularly embarrassing time for Mr Wahid, who opened a meeting of the Group of 15 developing countries which was attended by several heads of government just a few hundred yards from parliament.
Meanwhile, in the East Java town of Pasuruan, a Wahid stronghold, police fired warning shots to disperse hundreds of supporters who went on the rampage for a second day. At least one man was killed, witnesses said.
The military parachuted in reinforcements to the town where the previous day pro-Wahid mobs set fire to two churches. A soldier whose parachute failed became the first victim of the violence.
The President is unlikely to win official backing to implement any emergency laws, with the military siding with the Vice-President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri. Aides say Ms Megawati - who will take over if Mr Wahid is ousted - will reject an offer made late last week for her to become effective head of government, a move Mr Wahid hoped would stave off the impeachment move.