Nasheed no-confidence motion scheduled for tomorrow

Parliament had scheduled the no-confidence motion against the legislative body’s speaker, former president Mohamed Nasheed for Monday.

The decision to slate the motion for Monday comes with the Parliament unable to hold a full sitting since it reopened for the third session in August.

Due to lack of quorum with many of the MPs busy in campaigns for the presidential election, the Parliament decided last week to postpone further sittings until after the election.

The ruling MDP had submitted no-confidence motions against both Speaker Nasheed and Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla, back in June.

Following the motions, both Nasheed and Eva recused themselves from presiding over sittings, leading to a deadlock.

MDP has accused Nasheed and Eva of running the Parliament in violation of the country’s constitution, and rules and regulations.

Following the clashes within the MDP, which holds a supermajority at the Parliament, MPs loyal to Nasheed had left the party. The changes to the Parliament’s composition with the move created a deadlock during the second session.

But the Parliament re-convened for extraordinary sittings during recess, and made changes to the composition of the permanent committees to reflect the overall composition change.

The Parliament’s composition changed again, when the MPs who left MDP signed for a new party, the Democrats.

MDP has accused Nasheed of deliberately creating a deadlock to hinder the no-confidence motions against him and Eva, his cousin.

The first sitting of the third session of the year was cut short, after Nasheed said MPs from Democrats hadn’t informed the Parliament of the change in their party.

The constitution stipulates that no-confidence motions against the speaker or deputy speaker require the vote of half of the Parliament.

MDP, which began the current parliamentary assembly with a supermajority, now has 56 MPs. Nasheed’s Democrats boast the second higher numbers, with 12 MPs.