Parliament responds to President

Parliament has responded to President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik’s statements that he does not believe that that there was delay in the ratification of the two bills; Political Parties Bill and the Parliament Member’s Powers and Privileges bill.

Both bills were passed by the parliament for a second time on 5th of this month, making it mandatory for the President to ratify them. The President ratified both bills yesterday.

Parliament released a statement today stating that the two bills were sent to the President for ratification last Wednesday, and that the President’s Office had received the bills at 13:30 that afternoon.

“The bills were sent to the President in the afternoon of the 6th of March 2013 Wednesday so that they may be published on the government gazette. Parliament records show that the President’s Office had accepted the two bill at 13:30 on that day,” the Parliament statement read.

The Parliament also stated that on the morning of Monday at 08:30, the President’s Office had returned the bills to the Parliament to make certain corrections to four different pages of the bills and that the Parliament had returned the bills back to the President’s Office on that day itself. Parliament said that their records show that the President’s Office had accepted the corrected bills at 11:30 Monday morning.

Parliament however had not challenge the President’s statements directly.

While the Parliament has said that they had sent the bills to the President on Wednesday, the President, during the press conference held after ratifying the two bills, had said that he received the bills on Thursday. He also said that his office had tried to send the bills back to the parliament to make certain corrections on Sunday, but said that the Parliament had asked him to send it back on Monday instead, and that the bills was returned to him on Monday afternoon.