Vote of no confidence:
We will decide our position tomorrow: Thasmeen

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali has said that his party’s position on the no-confidence vote for Home Minister Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim and JSC member representing parliament MP Gasim Ibrahim, will be decided in the parliament tomorrow.

Thasmeen said that he will made a decision on the no-confidence vote before it is asked for at 13:30 tomorrow afternoon.

DRP is part of the current coalition and has a total 15 MPs in parliament.

The spokesperson for the second strongest party in parliament, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), Galolhu-south MP Ahmed Mahlouf told Sun today that the party has not yet called for a whip for tomorrow’s vote, but said that the party’s position is clear and that they will vote against the no confidence vote. Mahlouf said that the party will call for a three line whip and that the MPs who vote against the whip will be penalized, but said that all MPs are in consensus regarding the matter.

Progressive Party of Maldives currently has a total of 21 MPs in parliament.

Defence Minister Nazim told Sun today that he does not believe that he has done anything to deserve a vote of no-confidence, and that he is certain that the “honourable coalition members” will vote in his favour.

Judicial Service Commission (JSC) member representing parliament and Maamigili MP Gasim Ibrahim was unavailable for comment regarding the matter.

A no-confidence vote may pass with votes from 39 MPs of the total 77 MPs currently sitting in parliament. The motion was accepted by the parliament after 29 MPs from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) parliamentary group voted in favour of the motion.

MDP had proposed the no-confidence motion against Defence Minister Nazim accusing him of amalgamating the separate prerogatives of two different government ministries, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Transport, while holding the position of acting Minister for Transport, and for using military influence to disband government civil correspondences without the due processes of the courts of law.

The no-confidence motion against Jameel accuses him of failing to uphold peace in the streets of Male’.

Submitting the no-confidence motion against MP Gasim Ibrahim, MDP had stated that it is not right for Gasim to sit as member of JSC while simultaneously standing as a presidential candidate for Jumhoory Party.