Will not respond to presidential address for two reasons: MDP

Parliamentary Group Leader of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has said that the parliamentary group of MDP had decided that it would not respond to the presidential address delivered today by President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik.

Ibrahim Mohamed Solih told Sun Online that MDP does not believe that President Waheed’s assumption of the post of president was legitimate, which means that the party does not have to respond to his presidential address.

“We decided that we would not respond to the presidential address for two reasons. The first reason is that President Waheed’s assumption of the post of president was not legitimate. The second reason is that if Waheed became president according to the law, he would be a member of MDP. He was elected as vice president on MDP ticket. So MDP does not have to respond to the address,” he said.

MDP also refused to respond to the presidential address delivered last year, on 19 March 2012. Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said that the party did not respond to the address last year for the same reasons.

Article 25 (b) of parliament procedures states that following the delivery of the presidential address, the party with most members other than the one represented by the president (majority leader or minority leader) must prepare and deliver a response to the presidential address. According to article 25 (e), this response must be delivered within 14 days of the presidential address.