Parliament decides against tabling Nasheed’s motion pending outcome of court case

Parliament secretariate says they will not table the no-confidence motion submitted against Speaker Mohamed Nasheed pending the outcome of the conflicting case in the Supreme Court after Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla recused from presiding over the sitting for the same reason which was tabled for the fifth time on Sunday morning.

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.

Parliament secretariate’s Communications Director Hassan Ziyau told Sun that they have decided against tabling the no-confidence motion any further after Deputy Speaker Eva recused from presiding over the sitting while the parliament’s regulations state that the sitting must be presided over by the deputy speaker.

Eva, in a letter to the parliament last week, informed she was recusing herself from presiding over sittings before the Supreme Court makes a decision regarding Nasheed’s no-confidence motion.

Responding to Eva via a letter on Tuesday, Parliament’s Secretary General Fathimath Niusha, expressed her view that Nasheed’s no-confidence motion and the Supreme Court case are different matters. Hence, she appealed to Eva to preside over the sittings in the no-confidence motion.

The sitting on the no-confidence motion was scheduled for a fifth time on Sunday morning after the letter was sent to Eva. However, she had called in sick, as per the parliament secretariat.

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.

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

Supreme Court is scheduled to hear MDP’s case on the matter between 10:00am and 12:00pm tomorrow morning.