Amendment proposed to allow the President and Vice President to be summoned to the parliament to be questioned

A resolution has been proposed to the parliament to include a stipulation in the parliament regulations to allow the president and his vice president to be summoned to the parliament and questioned.

This amendment to the parliament guidelines was proposed by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Saleem of the Hoarafushi Constituency seat. Stating that the existing parliament regulations is outdated, he also proposed to annul it.

Saleem highlighted that the parliamentarian’s right to question Ministers of the State allowed by the Article 98 of the Constitution is diminished as a result of these regulations.

Speaking in today’s Parliament sitting about the motion, he stated that the constitution allows extensive rights to the parliament in questioning Ministers and stressed that there is no point in having a regulation on this matter when the Constitution itself is being followed. He said that the stipulations on questioning Minsters must be incorporated in the Parliament’s regulations in a way that does not defer the Constitution.

“Ministers questioning the parliament members is also established in other countries under the house rules. Or under the regulations that run the parliament,” Saleem said.

Saleem said that in matters of sensitive importance, the parliament also reserves a chance to summon Ministers without a notice. He emphasized that this right is obstructed by the existing outdated regulations.

He stressed that while the Constitution bestows the right of holding the government accountable onto the parliament, the stipulation in the regulations that allow only ministers to be held accountable is a significant obstruction of the parliament’s responsibilities.

“And the Cabinet does not solely consist of Ministers. The cabinet’s highest members are the President and the Vice President. The Constitution is dictating that anyone in a government position must account for their responsibilities as determined by the parliament,” said Saleem.

He pointed out that the Constitution is structured to allow the President and Vice president to be summoned to account for their responsibilities as well and that the restriction mandating only the Ministers' be summoned is diminishing the parliament’s right to hold the government accountable.

He highlighted that there are special circumstances that mandates the President and his Vice to be held accountable. However, due to the lack of a parliamentary procedure on the matter, this action has not been implemented.

As stated by Saleem, a stipulation allowing the summoning and questioning of the President, Vice President and the Senior Representatives of the State must be incorporated into the parliament regulations.

“It is a duty of the parliament to follow this path. Other countries in the world also summons the president to the parliament to be questioned. Therefore, my proposal is to annul the stipulation in the regulations of questioning solely the Ministers and implement the amendments that allows the parliament to fulfil their responsibility of holding the government accountable as stated in the constitution,” said Saleem.

While Saleem has proposed the amendment to the guidelines to allow the president and vice president to be summoned to the parliament, the former government’s opposition had also proposed a motion to summon the former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to the parliament during his tenure in relation to the accusations of selling the Maldivian seas.

During the deliberation of this matter, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People’s National Congress (PNC) coalition had stated that each individual is equal under the Constitution's Article 20 and that there are no Acts in the Constitution that prevents the summoning of the president.

The parliament had made no decisionss on this proposal by the PPM/PNC coalition at the time.

MDP had recently amended the parliament regulations related to questioning Ministers. They had determined to shorten the window offered to Ministers to present themselves at the parliament as well as eliminate the stipulation of questioning solely on specified subjects.