Fifth attempt to hold Nasheed’s no-confidence motion fails as Eva remains on leave

The parliamentary sitting scheduled for Sunday to hear the no-confidence against Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, the fifth attempt so far, has also been canceled as Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla remains on sick leave.

The motion was initially scheduled for last week’s last Sunday. However, the sitting was cancelled subsequent to Eva, Nasheed’s cousin and fellow Democrats member, calling in sick.

The no-confidence motion was on the agenda for all days except Tuesday of last week; none of which panned out as Eva had called in sick for all of them.

As per the parliament’s regulation, a no-confidence motion against the speaker of the parliament must be presided by the deputy speaker. The regulation does not provide instructions for circumstances where the deputy speaker is unavailable.

Main ruling MDP which submitted the no-confidence motion with the signatures of 49 MPs, has filed a case with the Supreme Court subsequently, which was accepted by the court. The court is scheduled to hear the case on Monda. Opposition PPM-PNC coalition had decided to intervene in the case.

As per the parliament’s regulations, no other parliamentary works can proceed if the no-confidence motion has been filed against the speaker, without concluding its proceedings. 

MDP, which has 56 seats in the parliament, has decided against cooperating with any other parliamentary work than the no-confidence motion. They have also threatened against accepting president elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s oath of office if Nasheed remains speaker and also approving his cabinet.

The oath ceremony is slated for November 17^th. Meanwhile, pressing matters remain pending at the parliament including the supplementary budget submitted by the Finance Ministry for the remainder of this year and the state budget proposed for next year.