MDP: The democratic way is for Nasheed and Eva to resign

Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) parliamentary group, on Monday, expressing they have no intention to withdraw the no-confidence motions against Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed and Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla, remarked the democratic way is for both individuals to tender their resignations.

As parliamentary works have reached a standstill, with sittings in chaos; accusatory fingers have been thrown at each other based on political affiliations.

Opposition political parties within the parliament held a press conference on Monday, during which they stated the constitution as well as the parliament’s regulations lack of address on how to simultaneously proceed with no-confidence motions against the parliament’s speaker and the deputy speaker.

Rather they noted that a no-confidence motion against the speaker must be presided over by the deputy speaker, while a no-confidence motion against the deputy speaker must be presided over by the speaker. However, both the speaker and deputy speaker have recused themselves from presiding over sittings in light of the no-confidence motions against them.

Speaker Nasheed, in a message to parliament’s Whatsapp group, said the solution was to proceed with one motion at a time.

MDP’s parliamentary group held a press conference later in the day. In response to the question posed by a journalist, Velidhoo MP Abdulla Shafeeq said there was no legal obstruction for the speaker to preside over the sittings during the 14-day notice period stipulated under the parliament’s regulation. He accused Nasheed of recusing himself from presiding over the sittings in order to stall the no-confidence motion against Deputy Speaker Eva.

“As we believe, none of the motions need to be withdrawn. The no-confidence motion was submitted against them with the signatures of a majority of the lawmakers. If they were to follow the rules of democracy or the best practices across the world, they should resign from their posts and remain as general members,” he said.

The re-constitution of parliament committees due to the changes to the parliament’s register prompted by the mass resignation of MDP MPs remains incomplete. As per the opposition parties, the meetings held with MDP MPs regarding fast-tracking the parliament works led nowhere, as they were not in the mindset to compromise.

The parliament’s Secretary General Fathimath Niusha has also sent a letter to MDP’s PG leader Mohamed Aslam underscoring the parliament’s regulations do not allow the parliament to reach to deadlock. Although the committees have not been re-constituted, Eva’s no-confidence motion has been scheduled for tomorrow.