Parliament to Eva: Can preside over sittings despite court case

Parliament, on Sunday, underscoring Speaker Mohamed Nasheed’s no-confidence motion and MDP’s Supreme Court case, as two separate matters, has stated Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla can continue to preside over sittings despite the case pending at court.

Eva, in a letter to the parliament, said she was disinclined to preside over sittings before the Supreme Court makes a decision regarding Nasheed’s no-confidence motion.

Sun has received a copy of the letter the parliament secretariate sent to Eva in response.

In the letter, the parliament said MDP’s Supreme Court case asked for the court to establish who will oversee the sittings on the no-confidence motion against the speaker in such a case the deputy speaker has been indisposed and to ascertain that the motion needs to proceed.

Additionally, the parliament said MDP also asked to establish that the parliament cannot hold any other sittings until work on the no-confidence motion is completed.

Therewith, the parliament expressing their view that Nasheed’s no-confidence motion and the Supreme Court case are different matters, appealed to Eva to preside over the sittings in the no-confidence motion.

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.

Nasheed’s 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. It was scheduled for Sunday then, only to be canceled again subsequent to Eva calling in sick.

With the no-confidence motion stalled, the whole parliament has yet again fallen into a deadlock, similar to the previous session.