Ilyas: MPs blackmailed into endorsing no-confidence motion against Nasheed

Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb alleges that lawmakers from his former party – the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) – were blackmailed into endorsing the new no-confidence motion against Speaker Mohamed Nasheed.

He made the allegation in an interview to SanguTV on Sunday night.

Ilyas alleged that MDP offered bribes to lawmakers, including promises of awarding flats to family members, and to tamper with investigations linked to them.

“The lawmakers have clearly told us that lawmakers, especially those from the MDP, are being influenced in various ways. Some of them have confided in Speaker Nasheed himself. We know that the lawmakers are being blackmailed. We know they are being coerced,” he said.

The MDP had originally submitted no-confidence motions against both Nasheed and Deputy Speaker Mohamed Nasheed – both of whom left MDP for Democrats - 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.

The recent motion against Nasheed was submitted with the endorsement of 49 MPs on October 9.

Ilyas said that the new motion was submitted through an “illegitimate route and with bad intentions.”

The MDP parliamentary group – which holds a majority at the Parliament with 56 MPs - has issued a three-line whip to vote in favor of the motion.

43 votes are required to pass the motion.