Chair announces name of MP protesting in parliament, forces him to leave

Member of Parliament for Maafannu-South constituency Ibrahim Rasheed was forced to leave the parliament session today, following a protest by the MP against the secretariat for failing to schedule his extraordinary motion.

MP Ibrahim Rasheed's extraordinary motion asked the parliament to address the concern that the police are preparing to scrap the vehicles that have accumulated in the capital's tow yard. In protest, MP Ibrahim Rasheed sat on the floor in front of the parliament secretariat’s desk until his name was announced by the chair, asking him to leave the chambers. Parliament was able to begin today’s session soon after MP Ibrahim Rasheed had left.

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Parliament’s session for today has been postponed for the third time due to lack of quorum.

Due to start at 9 am, the session was first postponed to 9:30 am, which was again postponed to 10 am as the session failed to meet the quorum following the 5-minute bell. Speaker Abdulla Shahid was forced to postpone the session to 11 am.

The parliament is scheduled to hear the first reading of the health care professional’s bill today, presented by Maduvvari MP Visam Ali on behalf of the government, and also the debate for amendments to the local councils elections act proposed by Thulusdhoo MP Rozaina Adam.

A minimum of 20 MPs have to be in attendance for a parliament session to begin. The parliament currently holds 77 seats in total.

Parliamentarians are in the State’s highest wage category, with a take-home pay of MVR 82,000, which breaks down to a monthly salary of MVR 62,000 and MVR 20.000 in allowances