Parliament's secretary General Fathmath Niusha informed speaker Mohamed Nasheed that Tuesday's sitting could have proceeded with an MP assigned to preside in his place, Adhadhu has learned.
In a letter sent to Nasheed yesterday, the secretary general said she believed there were two ways for conducting the sitting in light of advice from counsel general Fathmath Filza. The secretary general explained the two options in detail in the letter that has now been made public.
"... in my view, one of the ways that work on [deputy speaker Eva Abdulla's no confidence motion] could be done is to table in the agenda of the next sitting a decision to be made on the changes to the proportion of MPs from political parties and independent MPs in parliament's standing committees, in order to expedite the general affairs committee determining the number of MPs and the time for debating the motion, and for the speaker of parliament to delegate in accordance with the parliament's standing orders to another person the responsibility of presiding over the sitting where the motion on removing the deputy speaker is proposed," Niusha wrote in the letter.
When MPs arrived in the parliament chamber, Niusha announced that today's sitting could not proceed. She did so because Nasheed did not reply to yesterday's letter.
The sitting could not take place because a decision had not been made regarding the person who would chair.
"The speaker of parliament informed in a letter sent on 12 June 2023 that he refuses to preside over the sitting with the motion proposed to remove the deputy speaker of parliament on the agenda. Therefore, until a decision is made on presiding, I inform the honorable MPs that this sitting cannot go ahead," Niusha said.
While Eva's motion was in the agenda for today's sitting, according to parliament's rules, the procedures for the sitting must be approved by the general affairs committee.
However, with parties unable to agree on reconstituting the committee, the number of MPs to speak and the time for debating were not determined for today's sitting.
