The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) is planning to petition the Supreme Court to declare that the cancelation of Sunday's sitting with Speaker Mohamed Nasheed's impeachment motion on the agenda contravened parliament's rules.
The MDP has decided to ask the Supreme Court to accept the case as it was related to the national interest.
As parliament's rules or standing orders state that the Deputy Speaker must preside over a sitting with the impeachment of the Speaker on the agenda, today's sitting was canceled after the Deputy Speaker took leave.
In the petition that the MDP is preparing to submit, the party is seeking an order to declare that the sitting could be held under section 44 and that the decision to call off the sitting was in violation of the rules.
Section 44 of the rules states that if the Speaker recuses himself from presiding over a sitting, the Speaker must assign an MP to preside in his place.
The MDP is also planning to ask the Supreme Court to declare that the impeachment motion must be concluded before any other work could be done in parliament, which is stated in section 205 of the standing orders.
The petition also states that the Speaker has been obstructing the no-confidence motion, which could paralyze parliament.
"In the state that parliament is in now, any work in any sitting could only be done, according to the rules, after making a decision on the matter of removing the Speaker of Parliament from the post," a source who spoke on behalf of the MDP said.
"However, as long as the Speaker is leading efforts to obstruct it, there is no path for parliament to carry out the responsibilities entrusted by laws and the constitution. The result will be a parliament being in existence but coming to a halt and being rendered powerless to do any work."
After today's sitting was canceled, the MDP asked the parliament secretariat to hold the sitting after arranging for another MP to preside. But Parliament's Secretary General Fathmath Niusha did not agree to it, according to the MDP.
The Democrats, the party to which Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla belongs, said she was unable to attend today's sitting because she has tested positive for dengue fever. Eva did not attend last Wednesday's sitting either.
The Democrats says the no-confidence motion to remove Nasheed was submitted for the second time in violation of the rules. The party said previously that it would try to obstruct the sitting.
The MDP says no parliamentary work could proceed without holding the sitting to conclude Nasheed's impeachment motion, including the special sitting due to be held for the swearing-in of the President-Elect, who is required to take the oath of office during a sitting of parliament.
