Two sittings slated for tomorrow; one for Nasheed’s motion other for budget

Two parliamentary sittings have been slated for Monday: one sitting with the no-confidence motion against Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed on the agenda and the other sitting with the budget on the agenda.

The first sitting, scheduled for 9:00am, has the submission of the supplementary budget proposed for the remainder of this year and the submission of the state budget proposed for next year. Speaker Nasheed’s no-confidence motion is tabled for the second sitting slated for 11:00am.

Nasheed’s motion had been slated for Sunday’s sitting. Vilufushi MP Hassan Afeef, Nasheed’s fellow Democrats member, presided over the sitting after Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla called in sick. He rejected the motion, citing it did not fit the standards for a motion as argued by members of the Democrats after calling in points of order.

Afeef, instructing MDP lawmakers who submitted the motion to resubmit the motion with the necessary changes, abruptly concluded the sitting.

Nevertheless, the parliament secretariate scheduled an additional sitting for the afternoon, with the motion on agenda.

Eva, who had called in sick for the morning’s sitting. attended the sitting held in the afternoon.

However, she refused to proceed with the motion citing Afeef, who presided over the morning sitting, had rejected the motion, and concluded the sitting.

Subsequently, Parliament's Privileges and Ethics Committee has passed a resolution recommending that MPs belonging to the Demcrats not be allowed to preside over the no-confidence motion against Nasheed, citing Afeef and Eva had violated other MPs privileges.

The parliament has yet to make a decision on who will chair tomorrow’s sittings.

However, Nasheed has sent a letter to the parliament’s secretary general asking to schedule the budget for tomorrow’s sitting, citing the no-confidence motion against him has been rejected.

MDP had even gone to the Supreme Court after multiple sick leaves by Eva, thwarting Nasheed’s motion. Supreme Court, last Thursday, ruled that the motion can proceed without Eva presiding over sitting, as argued by MDP.

Following Sunday’s events, MDP has also collected enough signatures to file a no-confidence motion against Eva.