Parliament sitting canceled due to lack of quorum

Parliamentary session scheduled for Monday, August 28, was unable to proceed due to the lack of a quorum.

The parliament consists of 87 members, and a quorum of at least 22 members is required for a session to proceed.

However, Speaker Mohamed Nasheed said that only 13 MPs were present during today's sitting.

"Despite the quorum call, the session could not be held as the enough members did not attend the parliament floor," he said.

Since the start of the third session of parliament last Monday, only two sittings have taken place. During these sittings, the primary agenda was the reconstitution of parliamentary standing committees.

During the recess after the second session of parliament, Speaker Nasheed highlighted that changes to the standing committees had been approved through an out of session sitting on July 10, following a request from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). However, the formation of The Democrats necessitated a repeat of the process.

However, despite the fact that 15 MPs, including Speaker Nasheed, had exited from MDP to join The Democrats, only three of them expressed their intention register with The Democrats during Monday's session. Despite the inclusion of committee formation on the agendas of both Monday and Tuesday's sittings, the process was halted by a series of accusations and disagreements between government and opposition members.

Meanwhile, Wednesday's session was not scheduled to allow for the registration of members in the parliament who had exited MDP and signed with The Democrats.

The agenda for today's session solely focused on the formation of standing committees. This comprised the inclusion of members from The Democrats in the parliamentary register and the subsequent establishment of committees. The voting process for these matters was also planned for today's session.

As the parliament couldn't be convened due to the lack of a quorum, many members are actively engaged in campaigning for their respective party's candidate in preparation for the presidential election slated for September 9.