The parliamentary sitting scheduled for Monday, October 1, ended prematurely due to the lack of quorum.

The agenda for today's parliamentary sitting included the issue of the letter sent by the Elections Commission regarding the resolution passed by the parliament to hold a referendum on the change of the system of government in the Maldives.

The quorum was not reached at the sitting scheduled for Monday last week as well. At the beginning of today's sitting, only 15 MPs were present. The chair waited an additional 15 minutes to see if the required 22 MPs would join to start the sitting.

Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, who chaired today's sitting, said that he could not understand the reason why the members did not attend the parliament sitting today.

Speaker Nasheed has repeatedly expressed concerns in the past about difficulties in holding and conducting sittings due to the lack of quorum.

While the parliament is in the process of seeking a referendum to change the governance system, a new amendment to the Constitution has been proposed. North Maafannu MP Imthiyaz Fahmy proposed the constitutional amendment, stating that a secondary vote would not be required if a previous vote for a parliamentary bill was taken.

Under the current constitution, the government system can only be changed after a constitutional amendment bill is passed by parliament. A referendum is conducted to seek public opinion on the proposed government system before the president can ratify it.

Parliament previously earlier passed a resolution seeking a public referendum on the governance system, which it sought through the parliamentary discretion granted by the Constitution.