The ruling Maldivian Democratic (MDP) has proposed to schedule the no-confidence motion against deputy speaker Eva Abdulla for Monday’s parliament session.
MDP accused the parliament’s secretary general Fathimah Niusha of delaying the motions against the speaker and deputy speaker on the pretext of committee reconstitution.
The majority party made the statements in a letter to Niusha on Saturday night signed by MDP parliamentary group leader MP Mohamed Aslam.
According to the letter, the secretary general must issue a notice of no-confidence motions within three days of submission and move the motions 14 days after the notice.
“Accordingly, Eva’s motion must be tabled for Monday,” Aslam said in the letter.
Last Thursday, Niusha removed the motion from Monday’s agenda, claiming that the motions cannot move forward without reconstituting the parliamentary committees.
In a letter sent that same day, Aslam claimed that as per the procedures, parliamentary work cannot proceed without concluding Eva’s motion.
The motions are at a standstill after 13 MPs who support speaker and former president Mohamed Nasheed quit MDP to join The Democrats.
The composition of the standing committees is based on the number of MPs in the political parties represented in parliament. As such, the MDP controlled a majority on the committees. But the 13 MPs who left the party had been among those assigned by the MDP to the standing committees. They also included MPs who chaired committees.
In the letter sent on Thursday, Aslam asked Niusha not to arrange the committees in such a way that the party would lose the majority of the committees as the MDP still has a 64 percent majority.
The MDP's parliamentary group decided to remove Eva after she left the party, but the Galolhu Uthuru MP is refusing to resign as speaker. A three-line whip to vote in favour of the motion was also approved by the parliamentary group.
MPs who support Nasheed are currently in parliament as independents as The Democrats has not been officially registered.
