A no-confidence motion filed to remove former President Mohamed Nasheed as Speaker of Parliament has been tabled in the agenda for next Sunday.
Parliament's Secretary General Fathmath Niusha sent out letters to inform MPs that the motion will be on the agenda next week.
Citing parliament's rules, Niusha said in the letters that the motion - which was submitted with the signatures of 49 MPs - must be placed on the agenda on the first working day after the mandatory notice period.
According to section 205 of parliament’s rules or standing orders, the Secretary General must send notice to MPs within three days after a no-confidence motion is submitted.
The parliament secretariat notified MPs of Nasheed's impeachment motion on October 12.
The section of the rules also states that the motion must be tabled in the agenda 14 days after the notice is given. As holidays are not counted, next Sunday is the first working day after the notice period.
Parliament's general affairs committee decided to allocate 30 minutes for Nasheed to speak in his defense, including 10 minutes each before the debate, in the middle of the debate and at the end of the debate.
The rest of the two-hour period was allocated for MPs to debate the impeachment motion.
The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) filed the motion to impeach Nasheed after withdrawing a previous motion, which had been withdrawn after the first round of the presidential election.
After the second motion was submitted, Nasheed at first indicated that it would be difficult to accept because of the withdrawal of the first motion.
In a message sent to the parliament’s WhatsApp group, Nasheed said he believed the no-confidence motion could only be moved in the next session because the same motion was submitted and withdrawn during the current session.
But the parliament secretariat said later that it would be accepted.
