Deputy Speaker Eva still on leave, sitting on no-confidence motion cancelled again

Parliament has once again cancelled the sitting on the no-confidence motion submitted against Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, owing to Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla still remaining on sick leave.

MDP submitted a no-confidence motion against Nasheed with 49 signatures. Upon the completion of the 14 day notice period, the matter was placed on agenda for Sunday's session as required by the Parliament regulations. However, that sitting was also cancelled as Deputy Speaker Eva has been unable to attend parliament since the past week due to suffering from flu-like symptoms. Mihaaru News has since reported that Eva has tested positive for dengue.

After the cancellation of Sunday's sitting, the motion was placed on agenda for today's session. However, today's session has also been cancelled for the same reason.

According to Parliament Regulations, a session conferring on a no-confidence motion against the Speaker of Parliament must be presided over by the Deputy Speaker. The regulation does not specify actions to take in the instance the Deputy Speaker fails to attend.

However, MDP members do not believe Eva's reasons for her absence. They allege that the Deputy Speaker is intentionally refusing to attend the sessions as a deliberate effort to obstruct the motion.

Despite MDP appealing to the Parliament Secretariat to proceed with the session even in Eva's absence, the Secretariat has refused on the grounds that such an action would be in contravention to the Parliament Regulations.

Subsequently, MDP has filed a case at the Supreme Court seeking two outcomes.

The first of this is for an interpretation of the law to read that in the instance the Deputy Speaker fails to attend a session on the Speaker's no-confidence, the parliament should be conducted as per Article 44 of the Parliament Regulations.

This states that in the instance of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker's absence, the five longest serving parliamentarians will be eligible to preside over a parliamentary sitting.

Secondly, MDP seeks an injunction from the SC ordering a halt to all parliamentary work until a decision has been made on the no-confidence motion against Nasheed.

MDP Legal Team does not believe that even the presidential inauguration scheduled for November can proceed unless the sessions on the no-confidence motion are concluded beforehand.

The Supreme Court has so far not made a decision on accepting the case submitted by MDP.