President promised to cancel Court summon based on vote: Ali Azim

Medhu-henveiru MP Ali Azim has said that he was told by President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, that the official chit that summoned him to Court would be cancelled – based on whether he agreed to vote a particular way at the Parliament today.

Azim was summoned to Court at 1:30pm today – the same time as the voting on establishing secret ballots for no-confidence motions against the President and Cabinet members was scheduled at the Parliament.

Speaking at the Parliament today, Azim said that he was contacted by President Waheed, the President's Political Advisor Ahmed Thaufeeg as well as Government Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza in relation to this vote.

Azim said that he was not surprised, and that he was convinced that he would be contacted by the President on this matter.

He said that the President had contacted him on similar issues in the past, including the FAM elections.

Ali Azim and Nashiz were summoned to Court following failure to repay loans taken from Bank of Maldives (BML) for Funaddoo Tuna Products.

Baarah MP Mohamed Shifaz had proposed three amendments to the Parliament Standing Orders.

The amendment proposed to Article 167 (a) states that secret ballots should be taken for all motions other than the ones for which the Constitution or Parliament Procedures obligate secret ballots.

The amendment proposed to Article 173 called for the addition of a clause to this article, to establish secret voting at the Parliament and Parliament Committees to remove the President and Vice President from office.

The amendment to Article 177 would make the vote taken in the Parliament to remove a Cabinet Minister from office, also a secret vote.