93 Members of the 20th Parliament take oath of office

Ninety three parliamentarians of the 20th People's Majlis have taken their oath of office this morning.

The ceremony was held at the Parliament this morning at 09:00 hrs.

The ceremony was officiated by Chief Justice Ahmed Muhthasim Adnan.

The first sitting of the Parliament will commence at 10:15 hrs this morning. At this sitting, the Parliament Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be elected.

People's National Congress (PNC), which holds a super majority in parliament, has nominated Fonadhoo constituency MP Abdul Raheem Abdulla for the post of Speaker and Dhiggaru constituency MP Ahmed Nazim as Deputy Speaker.

Besides this, the agenda for the sitting then includes conducting work on compilation of the parliament regulation of procedure under Article 88 of the Constitution.

The composition of the 20th People's Majlis is:

People’s National Congress (PNC) – 75 members

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) – 12 members

Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) – 2 members

Jumhooree Party (JP) – 1 member

Maldives National Party (MNP) – 1 member

Independent – 2 members

During April’s Parliamentary Election, PNC alone secured 66 seats. Since then, in the interim period between elections and the start of the new parliamentary term, nine candidates who got elected as independents have signed up to join the ruling party.

Counting in affiliated parties, the ruling party’s supermajority in parliament is 79 seats strong.