Members of The Democrats have directed harsh criticism to Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) for relaunching its efforts to remove parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed through a no-confidence motion once again.
Members of the MDP parliamentary group scheduled a meeting at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 8, to discuss moving forward with Nasheed's no-confidence motion. It was earlier confirmed that the required number of members to validate the no-confidence motion for submission has been signed.
MDP's PG said it was moving forward with the no-confidence once again over Nasheed's intention to harm the party for personal motivations.
The Democrats however, allege that the move was motivated to intervene the attempts to examine the current government's misconduct.
The Democrats' PG leader and Central-Henveiru MP Ali Azim said that the no-confidence motion was aimed to interrupt President-elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's swearing-in ceremony.
Former State Trading Organization (STO) Managing Director and running mate of The Democrats' candidate Ilyas Labeeb in the presidential election, Hussain Amir, said that MDP's no-confidence motion is an attempt to obscure the current government's corruption and misconduct before the new administration comes to power.
Parliament deputy speaker and North-Galolhu MP Eva Abdulla said that members of The Democrats exited from MDP owing to the deep network of corruption by the current government that had seeped into the parliament and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as well.
Ilyas Labeeb, the party's presidential candidate, called out to investigate the misconduct and corruption of president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's government.
North-Maafannu MP Imthiyaz Fahmy said that the government that came to power claiming it will rid the country from corruption had turned into a network of corruption.
The Parliament Speaker can be removed via a no-confidence vote with the support of 45 members, while MDP has 55 of its members in the parliament.
Although MDP previously submitted a no-confidence motion against speaker Nasheed, it was never addressed in the parliament after both Nasheed and Eva, against whom another no-confidence motion was submitted by the ruling party, refused to preside over the sittings.
Parliament regulations state that the speaker will preside as chair for no-confidence debates against the deputy speaker, while the deputy speaker will preside as chair for no-confidence debates against the speaker.
Besides the double no-confidence motions, another issue that hindered parliament proceedings was the impasse in forming parliament's standing committees after 13 MPs from MDP exited the party.
The parliament regulation also states that the timing for no-confidence debates should be set by the general committee of the parliament, which too was not functional after the members exited MDP.
The parliament went into a nearly two-month deadlock due to these issues.
After MDP's defeat in the first round of the presidential election, Nasheed's no-confidence by the party was rescinded in a bid to seek The Democrats' favor for the runoff election.
The Democrats, however, chose to remain neutral in the runoff election and later stated that they would have a notable role in the new government led by Dr. Mohamed Muizzu.
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