Today's sitting of parliament with a no-confidence motion against Speaker Mohamed Nasheed in the agenda has been canceled after Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla extended her sick leave with dengue fever.
MPs were informed of the cancelation in a message sent at 6:04 am.
The message from the Parliament Secretariat informed MPs that the sitting was canceled because the "Deputy Speaker has taken a sick leave for today's sitting."
A sitting was scheduled for Thursday at the request of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) over the delay in concluding Nasheed's impeachment motion.
The motion was first tabled in the agenda for last Sunday's sitting. But all sittings scheduled over the past week to vote on the motion were canceled with Eva taking sick leave and informing the secretariat that she was yet to recover from dengue fever.
Eva consulted a doctor and performed a blood test on October 23. The results showed that she was infected with dengue, MDP parliamentary group leader Mohamed Aslam said.
But Eva came to work on the following day and presided over a sitting.
Aslam said her attendance while ill was a matter of concern.
MDP MPs allege that Eva is using her illness as a pretext to avoid presiding over sittings in order to put off Nasheed's removal.
No other work could be done in parliament before concluding Nasheed's impeachment motion, MDP MPs say, citing parliament's standing orders.
Despite the submission of the state budget proposed for 2024, it has not been presented to the floor and the review process has yet to begin as Nasheed's impeachment motion remains stalled.
Following the cancelation of Sunday's sitting after the Secretary General decided that only the Deputy Speaker could preside, the MDP petitioned the Supreme Court to declare that the cancelation contravened and misinterpreted parliament's rules as well as article 82(c) of the constitution.
The Supreme Court has since accepted the case and scheduled a hearing for next Monday morning.
Both the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and Nasheed's Democrats party have filed third party interventions to join proceedings at the Supreme Court.
In its constitutional case, the MDP sought an order to declare that a sitting could be held under section 44 of parliament's standing orders.
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 party also asked the 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.
