Nasheed accuses president of involvement in ‘sabotaging’ Parliament

Parliament speaker, former president Mohamed Nasheed has accused President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of involvement in “sabotaging” the Parliament, preventing it from getting any work done.

Only 17 MPs were present at the chambers when the sitting began on Tuesday. Nasheed, who was presiding the sitting, said that other MPs were out in the courtyard.

The Parliament needs a quorum of 22 MPs to hold sittings.

Angered over the deliberate refusal to attend the sitting, Nasheed alleged that the shutdown was deliberately created at direct orders from President Solih to disrupt the functioning of the state.

“In Sha Allah, I will try to run the Parliament. We will carry out or work without a Parliament shutdown,” he said.

Nasheed asked President Solih to stop the alleged move.

“The president is directly involved in sabotaging and shutting down the Parliament. I ask him to stop usurping the powers of the state,” he said.

The Parliament had been scheduled to carry out work on two resolutions Tuesday; a resolution submitted by Maduvvari MP Adam Shareef Umar calling for restoration of maritime territory relinquished to Mauritius, and a resolution submitted by Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Habeeb calling for a constitutional referendum on a change in the system of governance in Maldives.

On Monday, several MPs from the ruling MDP had refused to debate on the resolutions, and refused to enter the chambers.

Nasheed waited four hours to see if the quorum can be met, before conceding defeat.

MPs who refused to enter the chambers waited instead, under the shade of umbrellas in the Parliament’s courtyard. Some alleged the Parliament was being run as a campaign center for the opposition, and accused the speaker of deliberately blocking key motions submitted by the government, and scheduling anti-government motions instead.