The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) cannot agree to the opposition's proposal to reconstitute parliament's standing committees without an MDP majority on any committee, the majority party's parliamentary group leader Mohamed Aslam said.
Hithadhoo Uthuru MP Aslam said on Adhadhu's 'Etherefuh' programme on Saturday night that other parties that took part in negotiations on Thursday wanted the MDP to hold 50 percent of committee seats with the rest to be divided among other MPs.
As the MDP has a 64 percent majority of parliament, Aslam said reconstituting the committees as proposed by the opposition would be damaging to the MDP.
"I do not believe, and I did not agree to it. However, we have compromised on areas where we were able to," Aslam said, referring to the cross-party talks.
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The MDP agreed on Thursday to give up one out of 10 seats on the general affairs committee, two seats on the 241 committee, and seats on the public accounts committee and economic affairs committee, Aslam said.
No-confidence motions against attorney general Ibrahim Riffath and deputy speaker of parliament Eva Abdulla have not proceeded in accordance with the rules over the reconstitution of committees.
But Aslam said that was an excuse used by the speaker, who has deliberately stalled the motions.
"There's no reason to not go ahead. There's no reason it cannot go ahead," said Aslam, who has served four consecutive terms in parliament.
While committees have been reconstituted in the past due to changes in the composition of parliament, Aslam said it was done without stopping parliament from functioning.
"The responsibility of the speaker is to bring it to the floor. Then the responsibility of political parties and MPs is to put forward a proposal. The decision is to be made on the parliament floor. So when it's decided it's done. One of the biggest problems is the speaker not bringing it," he said.
According to section 106 of parliament's standing orders, no committee has been dissolved as the committees were constituted based on a decision approved by parliament and would remain unless it is decided otherwise, Aslam said. The rules do not allow committees to be stopped on the orders of the speaker without a vote on the parliament floor, Aslam said.
Although attorney general Ibrahim Riffath's no-confidence motion was debated last week, the speaker halted proceeding with the motion. Deputy speaker Eva Abdulla's no-confidence motion was then removed from the agenda for June 12.
The opposition has also submitted a no-confidence motion against foreign minister Abdulla Shahid over the demarcation of the country's southern maritime border. After the no-confidence motions were stalled, the MDP filed a no-confidence motion to remove Nasheed as speaker with the signature of 54 MPs.
