A team of ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM)’s senior members travelled to Sri Lanka Wednesday night to meet with some of the lawmakers who signed the joint opposition's petition to seek a motion of no confidence against Parliament Speaker Abdulla Maseeh.
The team consists of PPM parliamentary group leader Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik, deputy leader Abdul Raheem Abdulla, MP Ibrahim Falah and MP Ahmed Shiyam. Mihaaru understands that the team is seeking to meet the lawmakers in person as they could not be reached via phone.
According to sources two of out of ten PPM members who signed the no confidence motion are currently in Sri Lanka. One of them is MP Mohamed Abdulla who on Wednesday met with former President Mohamed Nasheed and assured that he strongly remains with the reform work of the opposition.
While it is rumored that the PPM team is trying to bring back the lawmakers to the Maldives, Secretary General of PPM Abdulla Khaleel stated that the team aims to meet with their supporters residing in Sri Lanka.
Tensions are currently high within the parliamentary group of PPM in the wake of government-aligned lawmakers showing support for the no confidence motion against Speaker Maseeh. While complaints over the weak link between the government and lawmakers have been raised in PPM PG's official Viber group, President Abdulla Yameen has requested to be removed from the chat.
Some lawmakers say that MPs are leaving the ruling party due to the government's insufficiency and concerns of not being able to fulfill the pledges made to their constituencies. While a committee has now been made to solve the issues, some lawmakers have retorted that several such committees were previously created without any satisfactory results to show.
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