Nasheed says ‘difficult’ to process no-confidence motion this session

Speaker Mohamed Nasheed says it would be difficult to accept the no-confidence motion against him – in the second attempt by the MDP to remove him from his post – during the current session.

Nasheed made the remark in reply to a text sent by Hulhumale’ MP Ali Niyaz to the Parliament’s WhatsApp group on Sunday.

Nasheed said that no-confidence motions are limited to one per each session. He said that it would be “difficult” to accept a motion that was submitted during the last session and withdraw earlier, during the current session.

“It will be difficult to accept the motion this time. A no-confidence motion was set in the agenda and then withdrawn this session. Perhaps this can only be processed next session,” he said.

The remark reportedly came shortly after the MDP parliamentary group passed a no-confidence motion against him.

The MDP had originally submitted no-confidence motions against both Nasheed and Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla earlier this year. The motion against Eva was submitted with the endorsement on 50 MPs in May, and the motion against Nasheed followed, with the endorsement of 54 MPs, in June.

But the MDP withdrew the motions in September, while the party was engaged in negotiations with the Democrats – the party to which both Nasheed and Eva belong – for the presidential runoff election.

In a parliamentary group meeting earlier Sunday, the MDP decided to re-submit the no-confidence motion against Nasheed.

The MDP parliamentary group leader, North Hithadhoo MP Mohamed Aslam told Sun the decision was made with the unanimous consensus of the MPs who attended the meeting.

The party is reportedly gathering signatures to submit the motion. They need the endorsement of at least 22 MPs to submit a no-confidence motion against the speaker.

The MDP holds a majority at the Parliament, with 56 MPs.