MPs who will preside over sittings in absence of speaker, deputy speaker decided

MPs who will preside over parliamentary sittings in the absence of both the speaker and the deputy speaker were decided on Tuesday.

Article 44 of the parliament’s regulations dictate that the MPs who have consecutively served the longest in the parliament – in the order of who has served the longest to the shortest – will preside over sittings in circumstances where both the speaker and the deputy speaker are unavailable.

In this trajectory, newly-sworn Parliament Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla, on Tuesday, announced the names of the five MPs who will preside over the sittings in circumstances where both the speaker and the deputy speaker are unavailable.

They are:

1. Meedhoo MP Ahmed Shiyam Mohamed – 19 years and three months
2. Maamigli MP Qasim Ibrahim – 15 years and three months
3. Eydhafushi MP Ahmed Saleem – 15 years
4. Hanimaadhoo MP Abdul Ghafoor Moosa – 15 years
5. Mahibadhoo MP Ahmed Thoriq – 10 years.

As per Article 44 of the parliament’s regulations, if the duration of the terms of two lawmakers are the same, they will be ordered by their age, with priority to who is older.

Notably, Siyam, Qasim, and Abdul Ghafoor, who are first, second, and fourth on the list respectively, have presided over sitting during the 19^th parliamentary assembly in the absence of both the speaker and the deputy speaker.

Alongside Siyam, Qasim and Abdul Ghafoor, Saleem, who is third on the list, was also a member of the 19^th parliamentary assembly. Back then, the MDP-dominated assembly had placed Ghafoor in third place and Saleem in fourth.